Sangha Farm captivates visitors with organic experiences

Sheep rest on the slopes on Sangha Farm. /Courtesy of Sangha Farm

By Kim Se-jeong

• Published Oct 24, 2019 4:20 PM KST
• Updated Oct 24, 2019 5:29 PM KST

By Kim Se-jeong

GOCHANG, North Jeolla Province ― Gochang, 250 kilometers southwest of Seoul, has a flat landscape and enjoys a reputation as a clean county.

UNESCO's inclusion of the rural county into the world's Biosphere Reserves Network in May 2013 has helped it maintain such an image. Kim Bok-yong, the founder of Maeil Dairies who died in 2006 at age 86, was a visionary business leader and purchased land in Gochang to start his dairy business in the 1960s.

Ranging from plain milk to flavored dairy products, cheese, flavored coffee, yogurt and baby milk, Maeil Dairies has grown fast over the decades.

In 2008, the company added organic milk to its brand portfolio.

The farm staff said launching the organic milk line came from the company management's vision to deliver quality food to consumers in Korea amid food safety woes that reached its peak in 2008 when melamine-tainted milk powder killed babies in China.

“For two years, the company tried hard to persuade local farmers in Gochang to join its organic milk project,” Eden Lee from Sangha Farm said.

She noted launching an organic brand was a tough decision. Getting organic certification requires a great deal of hygiene regulations and a sizable investment with which individual farmers were initially reluctant to comply.

For example, a certified organic dairy farm needs 916 square meters of grassland per cow and an additional 34.6 square meters of space per cow. As well, animal feed should be grown with animal compost, and no chemicals are allowed to be injected into the cows, except for vaccinations.

“Farmers didn't like the idea at all,” Lee added.

With 22 farmers from Gochang ― and two others from outside Gochang ― onboard, organic Sangha milk finally made its commercial debut in 2018.

Now, 70 tons of organic milk is produced daily. On the sidelines, the company planned to open Sangha Farm to show consumers how organic milk is made and build consumer confidence.

“Telling them about our story wouldn't be enough to earn trust from consumers. The company decided to open up a farm and lay out the entire process for consumers,” said Lee Kyu-hee, another farm staffer in charge of managing the cows.

In 2016, after 10 years of preparation, Sangha Farm Saopened on 99 square kilometers of land, right next to the organic milk processing facility. The farm has one sample dairy farm, among 22, with 204 cows, which is run by the company.

Sangha Farm is like a big theme park.

With a place to stay and stores inside the compound, the farm site is a hot tourist destination.

A visit to Sangha Farm gives visitors a complete understanding of the ethical process of organic milk. Visitors are welcome to see cows on the ranch grazing, being fed, milked, cleaned and maintained by ranchers on a free tour.

The visitors are allowed to feed the cows themselves ― children particularly enjoy the activity.

The tour also takes visitors to the milk processing facility in which gigantic machines process and package milk. The facility has the capacity to process 100 tons of milk per day.

Other than milk, the facility also makes hand-made cheese using organic milk ― an average of 50 kilograms per day ― and people can get a glimpse during the tour.

But this is not all visitors can expect at Sangha Farm.

In fact, Sangha Farm proposes a new way of life, helping visitors make their own food using locally grown ingredients and making a living off of these agricultural activities.

“People who visit the farm can see how things are done to produce Sangha milk. But not only that, people can also see the vegetables growing and eat food made with the vegetables. This is what the company sees as the future of people's lives and what it wants to contribute. And people who visit the farm can experience this briefly,” Eden Lee said.

The farm has a garden with seasonal vegetables, stations where local ham, sausage, fruit jams and other food products are made, and shops where they are commercially sold.

Seasonal vegetables and herbs that are grown in the farm are served to customers at the farm's two restaurants ― Sangha Kitchen and Korean Farm Bistro. Other ingredients come from local farms in Gochang and the extended area.

Promoting local ingredients is commitment Sangha Farm is trying to live up to. It seeks to procure ingredients within Gochang and North Jeolla Province.

That effort is also seen in its grocery and souvenir shop. At Sangha Farm Store, guests can find jams, rice and sweet potatoes from local farms.

Sangha Farm has emerged as a popular destination for visitors seeking a weekend getaway. About a three-hour drive from Seoul, the farm is particularly liked by families with children as it offers various opportunities through which the children can feel nature and interact with animals.

Here are some of the farm's highlights:

Animal Farm

This makes Sangha Farm unique. Beside cows, the farm has goats, chickens, sheep, rabbits and dogs. The farm used to have pigs but after the outbreak of African swine fever, the farm staff had to cull them.

Visitors can feed sheep and cows with dry grass, calves with milk and rabbits with carrots. The farm offers a milking tour through which they see cows being milked and milk being processed into cheese and bottled milk.

Odor is usually an issue at animal farms, but Sangha Farm kept that under control after implementing a set of hygiene measures.

Main garden and restaurants

The first thing visitors would see at the farm after their arrival is the main garden. Seasonal vegetables and herbs are grown, such as cabbage, sweet potato, beans, pepper, peppermint, rosemary, among others. Vegetables from the garden are used at the farm restaurants to serve guests.

Sangha Kitchen is a Western restaurant. Sausage pizza, the most popular dish at the venue, uses sausage made at the farm. Crab spaghetti uses crabs from the water off Gochang and salad with ricotta cheese from the farm.

At Korean Farm Bistro, guests can enjoy Korean cuisine, such as grilled Gochang pork, the most popular dish, and rice with marinated sea eel which is another local specialty.

Ham, fruit, bread ateliers

Sangha Farm makes hand-made ham, sausage, fruit jam, bread and fermented beans and these processes are open to the guests. It's particularly exciting to see atelier staff making ham and sausage which is a rare opportunity.

Getting ingredients right is important, the farm staff said, and they use ingredients from the farm, or others in Gochang or North Jeolla Province.

Cooking classes

The hands-on classes can thrill children, as they acquire hands-on cooking experience. Available classes are sausage, bread and jam making, and the sausage making class is said to be the most popular.

The classes give them the chance to think about food they eat. It is a little bit pricy but would be worth trying out for young visitors. The classes are offered at least once a day and reservations are required.

Sangha Farmer's Village

The Farmer's Village is a lodging facility with 41 guest rooms, lecture halls and a restaurant. An overnight experience at the village would complete your experience at Sangha.

Rooms are built with wood, creating a rustic and simple atmosphere, and offer views toward Mount Seonwoon, Gusipo Beach and partly Sangha Farm. The check-in hour is 3 p.m., and breakfast is included ― the breakfast buffet has a good reputation. The village is also good for conferences and weddings.

Farm Store/Farm House

Don't forget to drop by stores and pick up a couple of authentic items native to the farm or neighboring area. Hand-made cheese is one because it is hard to get by outside the farm. Stores also offer authentic souvenirs from the region, for example bamboo containers and lacquered dishes.

Sangha Halloween festival

Sangha Farm's Halloween festival draws visitors from outside Gochang County, mostly children and their parents, to the remote farm from all over the country.

Kicking off last year, the farm's Halloween festival attracted tens of thousands of visitors. This year's festival started last weekend, drawing 7,000 children on Saturday and Sunday alone ― no small feat given its remote location.

Halloween at Sangha Farm distinguishes itself with its vast space and its decorations. From the trees to the buildings, spooky decorations are all over, haunting ― also exciting ― the children.

Children are expected to bring their own costumes. Dressed up, they roam around the vast farm to meet with ghosts and vampires who would give them a mission.

Those who accomplish five missions receive a prize then move on to make special Halloween cookies. Children in costumes can also take pictures with the roaming ghosts and post them to social media to receive candy.

During the Halloween festival, the farm's two restaurants ― Sangha Kitchen and Korean Farm Bistro ― offer early bird discounts. Diners who visit between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. will receive a 10 percent discount.

At Farmer's Village, a hotel on Sangha Farm, a lunch buffet will be available between noon and 3 p.m. for 30,000 won for adults, 25,000 won for children aged between eight and 13, and 15,000 won for those between three and seven.

For all dining outlets, reservations are mandatory, especially given the size of the crowds on festival days.

Those who want to join the festival can enter the farm by simply paying the entrance fee ― 8,000 won for adults and 5,000 won those under 18 years old. For visitors who want to stay at the farm overnight, a hotel reservation is mandatory.

Kimjang

November is the time for “kimjang,” a process of making kimchi for the winter. Sangha Farm is looking for people interested in doing kimjang together.

The farm will have kimchi-making sessions together with an instructor and the participants will each take five kilograms of kimchi home. Delivery will also be possible. All the ingredients, fresh and locally prepared, will be provided by the farm. The kimjang program costs 57,000 won per person and will be held from Nov. 16 through Dec. 14. Reservations are mandatory and must be made at least three days in advance.

If you want to try Sangha Farm's kimchi first, you can order it online through sanghafarm.co.kr.

Exporing Gochang

Gochang County where Sangha Farm is located is populated with dolmens, a UNESCO World Heritage artifact. Almost 30,000 dolmens exist on the Korean Peninsula, and the majority are in Gochang. When you drive around, it's easy to spot a dolmen site and you can also visit the Dolmen Museum.

Beoseongpo, where Indian Monk Mirananta was believed to have set foot on the Korean Peninsula in 384 A.D., is also about 15 minutes away by car.

Autumn is a good time to visit the farm but is a busy season, especially during weekends. If you plan your visit during the week, your chances of having a true get-away experience will be higher.

For more information and reservation, visit sanghafarm.co.kr.