|
Gender of company owner |
Land size (mu亩) |
Main Products |
Farming Methods |
Marketing Channels |
Challenges |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
male |
- |
Blueberries, chicken |
Certified organic farming |
on-farm u-pick, large institutionalprocurement |
Natural risks |
An overview of the Blueberry Mountain Farm
A goat at the Blueberry Mountain Farm
About the farm
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Mr. Zhou, the founder of blueberry mountain farm, was an engineering businessman in Beijing. He came to Nanjing because of his interest in developing a new career in agriculture.
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Having zero knowledge and experience in farming, Mr.Zhou faces many barriers. For example, not every seedling will bloom or bear fruit. Being an outside newcomer, it is also difficult for Zhou to get alone with local farmers.
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Things are getting better after a few years of practices. Especially after blueberry saplings are growing stronger into trees, Zhou is able to have more steady productions nowadays.
What does the farm look like?
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The farm has plenty of blueberry trees growing all over the hills. In summer time, lots of tourists will visit the farm and pick blueberries. In Zhou’s words, that’s the peak season of the farm.
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Except for blueberries, throughout the tour on the farm, there are wild species of bushes and mushrooms that can be seen everywhere. Though not edible, Zhou likes to have them grow naturally.
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For Zhou, one good thing of organic agriculture is the eco-balance reached on the farm. In fact, transitioning from other careers to farming was driven by business opportunities rather than environmental concerns at first. But Zhou has deepened his understandings of organic agriculture only during the practices.
Other interesting things about the farm?
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Zhou pays great attentions to food safety and health. Eating artificial food with tons of additives and hormones is one of the reasons that people nowadays are highly subjected to diseases such as obesity and infertility. Zhou wishes to improve food quality and people’s awareness of food safety through organic farming.
Quote from Zhou:
“Birds are like my hired workers for insects, so I pay part of my fruits to them as wages.”