RITA: A lot of beauty, that's what she is

In Jinshan, a suburb of Shanghai, there is a farm called "Rijiao". There are large rice paddies, there are savage growing woods, there are rivers of the dead such as Sif... In the spring, the flowers bloom and burn; in the summer, the lotus comes out of the mud without staining, the roses are sprinkled all over the ground, and the herbs are everywhere; in the autumn, the rice waves are gushing, and the red persimmons of a tree reflect the blue sky - here is far away from the hustle and bustle of the city, leaving only the plants, small animals, and people who see the South Mountain leisurely.

"Sun foot" has the meaning of day in the Shanghai dialect, giving people a feeling that time is slowly and leisurely passing, warm and beautiful.

The owner of the farm is named Rita, whose original name is Ju mo mo, and is an artist.

I came a long way to get back here

Born in Shanghai, Rita traveled the world with her mother since she was a child, and at the age of fifteen, she went to the United Kingdom to study alone, studied secondary school in the southwest of England for three years, and then went to central Saint Martins' College of the University of the Arts London to study FINE ART (pure art) undergraduate.

After graduating in 2011, she returned to Shanghai and worked many jobs: art foundations, art magazine editors, advertising agencies — but she always felt that this was not what she wanted. Rita wants to work in art, but doesn't want to be a pure artist, which seems contradictory, but it's not really contradictory. She just needs a field that opens up art and real life, where art is life, life, and art.

Rita was always looking.

It wasn't until 2015, by chance, that Rita and her mother discovered the land in Jinshan, Shanghai, like an untapped treasure land, where everything was originally what it looked like, with vines winding, clear rivers and rice paddies rippling with the wind.

Once upon a time abroad, when Rita was in a bad mood, she would run to see a contemporary art exhibition, and a person stood in front of a work for a long time, as if he was far away from the distractions of reality and entered another world. Rita said, "Art cannot be defined because it can relate to everything. ”

Here, Rita seems to see that art and land and agriculture are perfectly combined.

This is also the dream of Rita's mother, who works in international business consulting and has traveled to almost all farms in Japan and Taiwan for 20 years, and she has always hoped to have a farm of her own.

After much discussion and design, Rita decided to keep the farm as pristine as possible, half woods, half fields, and a wooden platform made of fine Canadian red cedar in the woods that could be used as the main venue for the event, and the trees next to it were like natural umbrellas, tall and dense.

The "Sun foot" farm was born, which was the starting point for the realization of the dream of the mother and daughter duo.

Back to nature, life is to eat well and feel good

Wang Kailing said, "After the middle of the 20th century, human beings are getting deeper and deeper into this situation: we only live in our own achievements! He is desperately trying to use his achievements to tamper with and destroy the achievements of nature! But don't forget: even humans are one of nature's achievements! ”

"Nature is actually very close to us, not a place to visit once or twice a year, I want to make urban people pay more attention to the countryside, so that the distance between the countryside and the city is closer." Rita said.

What Rita does is to do her best to let more people return from the city to the countryside and truly experience the life of returning to nature.

What is life? In fact, it is very simple, life is to eat well every day, try to feel good in every moment.

Speaking of eating, Rita said that she has always been interested in food, and as early as her university days, her graduation thesis was to describe the impact of colonial culture on modern Chinese society from the perspective of food. In this paper, she writes about the borscht that her grandmother used to make for her when she was a child, which everyone in Shanghai at that time made, which was a trace left by the Russians during the concession period. She also wrote about the spicy soy sauce of the old Kelers' favorite Haipai Western pork chops dipped in, which was actually Worcestershire sauce, which was introduced from Britain to Guangdong and Hong Kong in China in 19 worlds.

She wrote, "Through a small dining table, you can see the migration, wandering, searching, and integration that has taken place in a land, and the peace of mind of groups of people." ”

But where is the "peace of mind" of our generation?

One summer, the farm's strawberries had just ripened, and some customers were surprised: Aren't strawberries only available in winter? Can I eat strawberries this season? Rita was stunned and a little lost: modern agriculture had messed up the seasons of plants, and everyone seemed to have forgotten the solar terms and the original appearance of their original appearance.

At The Sunfoot Farm, Rita does what she does to make food fit with the seasons, and eat whatever is conceived in the seasons.

In the spring, she makes peach blossom water letter cake and peach blossom wine under the peach tree, and makes The February orchid into dumplings or cold mix. In summer, the flowers are made into pure sauce and syrup.

In autumn, the table is set in the center of the rice field, and the partner sits in the center of the rice grass, with the aroma of the rice grass at the end of the nose and surrounded by the blessings of nature, and then the chestnuts are steamed together with the rice, and the chrysanthemum petals are sprinkled before leaving the pot.

Combining food with the beauty of nature, she seems to bring every season to the table.

That's art.

Rita farm is always asked when it is the most beautiful, and she says that it is beautiful all year round, even if the plants wither and the animals die.

Because this is nature, it should be born at the right time, it should go at the right time, the flowers will blossom and fall, and the cycle of life will be like this.

People should also have this natural beauty.

Just like the "Kik Song" sung more than 4,000 years ago: the sun rises and works, and the sun enters and breathes. Sink wells and drink, plough fields and eat. Dili is to me.

Rita hopes to let more people experience this beauty, she said, "a lot of beauty, is her original appearance, you don't feel it, you miss it." (Text/Proud Woman, Proud Girl)