Gguldorae-Nongdorae · 꿀도래농도래 · Cheongyang, Chungnam, Korea
Not one
black spot.
She keeps bees, and she grows goji.
Before her goji is cooked down into food,
it is sorted until not one black spot remains.
on her goji
name her honey
Bees · Goji
I — Before the Pot
Sorted by hand.
Until nothing is left to sort.
Goji is what Cheongyang is known for. For a long time it was handled only as a medicinal herb. Kim Sang-rim grows it, sorts it by hand, and makes it into something to eat every day.
On the drying trays · Sorted before the pot
In her own field
She grows the goji herself in Cheongyang, between the seasons of the bees.
Cooked down, not sweetened with sugar
The sorted goji becomes jin-go and extract. She sweetens with rice syrup and honey, not sugar.
“I saw the goji before it was cooked down. Not one black spot. I told her she was crazy. That is simply who she is.”
II — The Name
Dorae
Dorae is a native Korean word for a long and healthy life. Gguldorae is the honey, made for that life. Nongdorae is the farm.
III — The Maker
Kim Sang-rim —
Two kinds of work, one wish
Jangpyeong, Cheongyang. Gguldorae-Nongdorae Agricultural Corporation. She began with bees. The farm came after. In the flowering season she follows the bees, and between them she tends the goji.
She sorts the goji by hand before it goes into the pot, and she designed her own labels. Everything that leaves her farm passes through her hands first.
IV — Honey
The flower
names the honey.
The same bees, in the same place, bring back a different honey each year, depending on what bloomed.
In winter, she feeds her bees sugar to keep them alive. In spring, that honey is not sold.
V — Quality & Safety
Certified.
Export-ready.
The care that starts in the field is checked again by the standards that let food cross borders.
Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points, the food safety standard.
Certified for export.
No chemical additives. Goji, rice syrup and honey.
VI — From the Goji
Cooked down.
Spoon by spoon.
Goji was long kept on the herbalist’s shelf. She made it into something for the everyday table.
By the Spoon
Fully concentrated. A small spoonful, straight from the jar.
On a Cracker
Spread thinly on a plain cracker.
Whole and Dried
Not a teabag. The goji itself, dried whole.
No Sugar
Rice syrup and honey, from her own hives.
Her House
Gguldorae-Nongdorae
Her honey and goji, in her own words, on her own site.
Visit Gguldorae-Nongdorae ↗