Traditional skills in the Chinese countryside

[philaw]

How I covet the notion of a kitchen and a stove designed for wok cooking.
That's getting close to a bushcraft base camp.
I use 3, my best oldest is nearing 50 yrs. +40C or hotter in the kitchen, what's another degree or two?

That sounds fun! This kind of stove doesn't warm the kitchen because the hearth is small and the building uninsulated. It probably wouldn't be hard to build one, but the chimney would be harder work.

 

[philaw]

<a href="https://ibb.co/JpFnK06"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/qgFBdXq/IMG-20210224-132152.jpg" alt="IMG-20210224-132152" border="0"></a>
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Stop me if this is getting boring, but we've been up in the mountains recently and I thought it was interesting how the green tea plants are grown in most places in open sun, but in one or two spots they were grown interspersed with bamboo. This was in a ravine, so I wonder if tea plants need good drainage and that spot is damp, so the bamboo helps soak up water.

I've been watching youtube videos about new permaculture and forest garden techniques, but it seems like this villagers may have been doing it for quite a while already.

 

[SaraR]

<a href="https://ibb.co/JpFnK06"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/qgFBdXq/IMG-20210224-132152.jpg" alt="IMG-20210224-132152" border="0"></a>
<a href="https://ibb.co/Q8S6qR1"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/f86CK5P/IMG-20210223-133348.jpg" alt="IMG-20210223-133348" border="0"></a>

Stop me if this is getting boring, but we've been up in the mountains recently and I thought it was interesting how the green tea plants are grown in most places in open sun, but in one or two spots they were grown interspersed with bamboo. This was in a ravine, so I wonder if tea plants need good drainage and that spot is damp, so the bamboo helps soak up water.

I've been watching youtube videos about new permaculture and forest garden techniques, but it seems like this villagers may have been doing it for quite a while already.

Tea plants do indeed need well-drained soil and is often planted on top of a pile of stones if the soil isn't draining enough.

 

[philaw]

Tea plants do indeed need well-drained soil and is often planted on top of a pile of stones if the soil isn't draining enough.

Interesting. The hills or mountains that they grow it on are only maybe 500-1000m tall. Perhaps the good drainage there is a big reason for using mountain sides.