Today we went to Fanling to visit Hong Ning Diary, a small organic dairy farm.
I had heard it was the only dairy farm in HK that was certified organic, but it is so small they don't deliver to grocery stores. there are two ways to get this milk: either order it through one of their vendors, or if you are lucky, you may live somewhere they will deliver to your door every day, like the old times when the milk man came to your door every morning. It's a bit expensive, but I really want my daughter (who turned one year old yesterday) to have the best milk to drink during this critical growth period. Since they let people come to the farm as a tourist attraction, I thought it would be interesting for my kids to actually experience the process of how milk is collected, and such. Plus, Fanling is just a couple train stops away from us.
Today was a wet drizzly cold Sunday, and even though we were warned on the internet that Sundays are best to be avoided due to crowds, we found ourselves the only ones there today. On the internet, it says the tickets per person were $18, but when we arrived, they tried to charge us $30, saying the $18 dollar price is just for people who book online. After arguing that it doesn't say that anywhere online or in writing at the farm, they agreed to let us all in for $60. There is supposed to be a guided tour where they explain the process of how milk is collected and bottled, but we were not given the tour for some reason, just a bunch of grass to feed the cows.
I know on farms in Maine and Vermont and California, all the cows I ever saw had at least a paddy where they can go out and eat grass, and in CA they are often seen roaming the hillside. A California hill without a bunch of cows hanging out is a rare sight indeed. So in my mind these Fanling cows would be frolicking in the field eating clover and whatever else I imagined cows would like to eat.
Sadly, HK cows live much like HK people: surrounded by concrete walls and concrete floors. Remarkably clean concrete floors ( I can't imagine how often they must muck out the stalls to keep them so clean), but still hard on the hooves. The grass they eat is mowed by the farmers and brought to the cows daily. They never walk on it. But their manure is used to fertilize it, according to the web site. Seems like a lot of work fertilizing and cutting the grass and schlepping it all over creation and mucking out stalls could be avoided if they just let the cows hang out in the field, but what do I know?
We were given lots of free samples. They said when you are there, you can feel free to drink as much milk as you can. Well, I hate milk. I have had to drink it from time to time and I usually want to puke, I hate it so much. But I LOVED this milk! It tasted great! Mabo loved it too, and so did Kiara. Kai was weary of trying the milk because he doesn't tolerate it so well, so he missed out. I had several samples and bought a bottle for the road too.
Besides milk, they also keep bees and make an absolutely fantastic organic honey too. We bought two containers of honey and a bottle of milk and set out on our way home.
Unfortunately, I learned that they don't deliver to my area, but I could order a supply from a vendor in the wet market my helper goes every couple of days. I went to the vendor later in the afternoon and set up an order of 12 bottles a week. If I return the bottles, I will get a $1 discount for every bottle I return.
Lucky Kiara. She probably is going to be drinking the very freshest and most wholesome organic milk in all of Hong Kong. I'm thankful I found out about this place, and thankful I can provide something this high quality for her even in Hong Kong.
For those of you who are interested, here is the link to Hong Ning: http://www.hongningdairy.com
