Children spend a weekend at Tong Jia's Dandelion Farm in suburban Beijing. Photo provided to China Daily

One man's good earth

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"I have enough time to wait for them to mature. I will allow the land to be fallow for a year to let it get back to its original state," Tong says, adding that this is less than the time required by the three to five years for organic guidelines.

The total production from his 20,000-square-meter farm is more than enough to feed Tong, his friends and their families.

In the summer of 2011, Dandelion Farm produced several hundred kilograms of cucumbers. Tong posted a Weibo micro blog message online offering people his cucumbers. Within two hours, his message was forwarded more than 300 times.

Tong kept his word. For a whole month, he became a delivery man after work. But this was when Dandelion Farm changed from a wholly private venture to a more public effort.

But Tong had another agenda. He wants more people involved in the growing and the farming, because he feels this is the best way to connect with food in the urban lifestyle.

Tong decided to divide his land into about 80 allotments and invited people interested in being weekend or part-time farmers to rent a plot and grow their own food.

"I don't make a business of it. I just welcome those who share the same vision," Tong says.

Because his tenants are mainly families, they always drive to the farm with children. That gave Tong the inspiration to offer special classes for children who are estranged from nature.

The classes are more than just teaching children about the types of vegetables. It teaches them how to understand the relationship between man and nature, says Tong.

Tong's childhood was spent in the countryside in Hubei province where his mom worked as a teacher and he learned a lot playing around the paddy fields.

"Children living in cities rarely have access to nature. I hope they can come to my farm and enjoy themselves as I used to do," Tong adds.

As he talked about how to grow vegetables according to different seasons, there is little indication that Tong has only been a part-time farmer since relatively recently.

"I have just about finished my primary school as a farming student," he jokes.

In winter when he is not busy on the farm, Tong uses the time to travel, explore new food and visit friends.

"Being a farmer gives me a different mindset and a green lifestyle. Many urbanites have the idea of escaping from cities and returning to the soil. I'm among the few who really do it." Tong is certainly putting his money where his mouth is.