A Day of Farming and Cooking in a Chinese Mountain Village

What this video shows

The footage follows a single day of subsistence farming in a mountain village, moving through planting, tending, and harvesting rather than any narrated story. Work begins with seed corn and cow dung spread as fertilizer, then shifts to a garden holding rainbow spinach, garlic, tomatoes, eggplant, cassava, cucumber, cowpea, black beans, soybeans, and perilla. Bamboo is cut and lashed into a trellis so the cucumber vines have something to climb, and cassava stems are shortened for replanting. Meals are cooked from what is on hand, including rice porridge, fried egg, cucumber sauteed with meat, and fish braised with melons. Ducklings appear midway through, playing in water.

At a glance

What stands out

Fertilizer is made on site rather than bought: cow dung, protein fertilizers, and a mix described as red, black, flower ash and manure. Seasoning is minimal and specific — salt and MSG appear alongside the fried egg, and Japanese jasmine and rosemary are grown as well. The garden is unusually mixed for a single plot, combining grain, legumes, leafy greens, herbs, and fruit vegetables, with Centella asiatica and dandelion greens gathered as food. Cucumbers are eaten at several stages, from a young fruiting plant to a finished dish sauteed with meat.