The Value of Gurye’s Sansuyu Farming as an Agricultural Heritage
Sansuyu habitats in Sandong-myeon are created with original local method for sustenance in a barren land that lacks farmland. These habitats, which create beautiful scenery harmonized with the surrounding nature, are artificially built in areas between stones and rocks, around town entrance and mountain ridges.
Built with using Sandong-myeon's topography, sansuyu habitat shows how beautiful symbiosis between nature and people are by creating lovely scenery of winding mountain roads, harmoniously gathered houses and low stone walls.
Various herptiles, insects, birds and herbaceous plants growing in sansuyu habitats and on stone walls contribute to forming biological diversity in regions of agricultural heritage. There are traditions of cooperation with towns as units in traditional methods of fertilization, harvest and seed removal. Also, sansuyu farming-related culture is still passed down until today.
Maintenance and Management Efforts of Gurye’s Sansuyu Farming
Farming Fund management for sansuyu farming (scheduled)
Origins of Sansuyu Habitats
It is said that the name Sandong-myeon came from Shandong Province, China, the home of the girl who moved to Jirisan Mountain upon her marriage and brought the first sansuyu tree 1,000 years ago. There are written records in Sanrimgyeongje (Forestry Economy) and Seungjeongwon Ilgi (The Diaries of the Royal Secretariat) that Gurye’s cornus fruits were cultivated as special products of the region.Gurye’s sansuyu farming started when Sandong-myeon inhabitants started to plant cornus fruits as medicinal crops artificially in areas between stones and rocks, around town entrance and mountain ridges for sustenance in an unfavorable topographical environment which lacks farmland and suitable weather. There is a thousand-year-old sansuyu tree which was planted in Korea for the first time in Gyecheok Village, Sandong-myeon. Local residents call it 'the Grandmother Tree'.
Stone walls and Cornus Officinalis habitat
'The Grandmother Tree' in Gyecheok Village
Agricultural Heritage and Culture
Sandong-aega is a labor song sung by women of Sandong Village. It was originally sung by a nineteen-year-old girl named Baek Bujeon of Sanggwan Village who was taken to be shot to death instead of her older brother in the Yeosu·Soonchun Incident of 1948. Afterwards, the song was passed down as a labor song between women of Sandong Village and was sung during the cornus fruit harvest season in late autumn and the seed separation in winter.
Cornus officinalis flowers bloom when farming period begins, and an ancestral ritual for the abundant harvest is performed every year in the first cornus officinalis habitat in Gyecheok Village. For cornus officinalis related foodstuff, ways to brew cornus fruit tea and cornus fruit wine are passed down in the region.
The Knowledge System and Technology of Sansuyu Farming
: Agriculture environment apt for sansuyu farming
- Alluvial fan influenced by Seomjingang River- Rich organic soil with good permeability, nutrient-holding capacity and moisture-holding ability
- 2,124 hours of abundant sunshine per year that enable the production of cornus fruits with rich color
- Advantage in producing cornus fruits with excellent taste and qualities with less amount of rainfall after September when the quality of crops are determined
: Agriculture environment apt for sansuyu farming
Growing
Harvesting
Separating seeds
Drying
Cornus fruits should be harvested before the end of September and were traditionally harvested by spreading a straw mat on the ground and shaking the tree. Otherwise the fruits can be picked by hand from a tree. The fruits are half dried in the sun or in ondol room which is room with the Korean floor heating system for 3 to 4 days. Dried cornus fruits of Gurye are shiny and red with more flesh and sour flavor.
The work of separating flesh and seed were done in winter by piling up the fruit on the table and peeling the fruit with front teeth one by one with a bowl held under the chin. The job was usually done by children and women. so it is said that it was easy to distinguish girls from Sandong village because their front teeth were worn out from participating in the job from young age. Sansuyu farming was a tough job because it had to be harvested and dried almost by hand.
