Daeheung Farm (대흥농장) sits in the upper reaches of the Boseong River valley — in Geumho-ri, Nodong-myeon, Boseong-gun, South Jeolla Province. The name means great flourishing, taken from my mother’s house-name, Daeheung-daek.
Built for a Return
This land belonged to my grandfather. When my mother — widowed in her early sixties — chose to leave Seoul and return to the village where she had been a young bride, I built her a small house here. Then, around that house, the farm grew: a hand-built spring, a pavilion carried down from Gangwon Province, a summer pool, a garden.
The farm is not large. It is the right size for one woman and her memories.
What Is Here
- My mother’s house — a small home on ancestral land, where she has lived for about twenty years
- The ancestral graves — my paternal grandparents lie in pyeongjang (flat-grave) style on the gentle slope above the house
- Daeheung Spring — a natural spring enclosed by hand; the family washes wild greens in its water
- Daeheung Pavilion — a traditional pavilion with a house-style roof, transported 400 km from Wonju
- The summer pool — 10 × 4 metres, fed by the spring above; originally planned for fish, now a swimming pool on summer visits
Two Lives, One Root
I split my time between the city and this farm. The NAS server running eight apps sits in my city home. But its name — and the logic behind building things yourself, for your family, at zero cost — comes from here.
The hands that mixed a hundred bags of mortar for a spring are the same hands that build apps for a three-year-old daughter. Same impulse; different materials.
