The wind of living in Jeju Island for a month doesn’t seem to be going away for several years. There are dozens and dozens of books and YouTube programs that contain people’s lived experiences. The story of life on an island across the sea is as close as you can see in the comments about ‘Mom Cafe’ in the neighboring village. Jeju seems to have become familiar. Is that enough?
As someone said, I hope Jeju will always remain an ‘unfamiliar utopia.’ Take a break from everyday life. Fall in love with the scenery for the first time. Be lazy without thinking. Recharge the exhausted ‘anti-magic power’ (power to withstand shame or disgust in life). Meet a slightly healed me. A place like that.
● ‘The wind blows, the horse runs’
![The seasons stay like that in Jeju[여행스케치]](https://dimg.donga.com/wps/NEWS/IMAGE/2024/12/28/130737930.4.jpg "The seasons stay like that in Jeju[여행스케치]")
The wind is strong at Seongisidol Ranch in Geumak-ri, Hallim-eup, Jeju-si. According to Japanese cultural anthropologist Seiichi Izumi’s ‘Jeju Island’ (translated by Kim Jong-cheol, Summer Hill, 2014), the winter wind is created by Yeongdeung Halmang. The new wind, also known as Yeongdeungbaram, crosses the sea on the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar and returns on the 15th day of February. The legend of Udo (牛島) at the eastern end says, ‘If you do not properly worship Yeongdeung Halmang, a very fierce god, a storm will come.’
Of course, even when it is not the time for Grandmother Yeongdeung to come, the wind in Jeju is strong. Someone said, “The wind blows without knowing why. “The direction changes hundreds of times,” he said. Izumi’s interpretation that ‘the mountain god of Hallasan seems to be a symbol of wind and stone rather than a tiger like on land’ is probably correct.
Horses walk across 3.3 million ㎡ (approximately 1 million pyeong) of grassland in the wind that does not know where they come from and where they are going. It’s running fast. After the fall of Sambyeolcho of Goryeo in 1273, Mongolia brought 160 horses and used Jeju Island as a horse farm. Until the 20th century, villages collectively grazed horses, but now they mostly raise racehorses.
The horses at this ranch are also racing thoroughbreds bred by the 26-year-old stallion ‘Acton Park’. Racing horses begin racing at 2 to 3 years of age. 80% of the horses running at racecourses across the country are from Jeju. Player experience lasts at most 5 years. They usually retire at age 7.
There is a ‘kindergarten’ and ‘high school’ for racehorses here, as well as a ‘nursing home’ where retired racehorses spend the rest of their lives grazing on grass. There are four children: 19 years old, 17 years old, 15 years old, and 10 years old. Every year, about 2,000 dogs are born nationwide and about 1,500 dogs retire. The fate and fate of retired horses is not well known. This is also the reason why this ranch conducts a ‘retired horse’ care project with the Korea Racing Authority.
Seongsidol Ranch was developed on mid-mountainous land (200-500m above sea level) by Father Patrick James McGlinchey (Korean name Impije, 1928-2018), who came from Ireland in 1953. Isidore (1110-1170) was a Spanish serf-born Catholic priest and the patron saint of farmers. Of course, there are cows and sheep in this place, which is an ‘example of corporate ranching in Jeju.’ At the ranch rest area, ice cream is sold and milk is made from cows raised on pesticide-free grass. Organic milk does not have more nutrients than regular milk. Brunch cafes sell galettes made with Jeju buckwheat. In France, bacon is commonly added, but here it is also made with Jeju seafood.
● ‘Seasons fall like this and stay like that.’
The story of tea cannot be found in Izumi’s ‘Jeju Island’ or ‘Discovery of Korea – Jeju Island’ published by ‘Deep-Rooted Tree’ in 1983. However, it is now ranked first in Asia in annual tea production. There are a lot of tea farmers and the quality of tea is high. There are over 40 types of Jeju native flower tea.
In Hoesu-dong, Seogwipo-si, which means ‘place where water returns’ just as the seasons return, there is ‘Hoesudaok’ where you can taste tea and tea. The owner’s parents built it 32 years ago and used it as a boarding house for Tamna University students and as a pension, but after the school closed, they tore down the almost abandoned house and rebuilt it.
Here, you must savor the ‘outfits left to you’. The owner, Seo Kyeong-ae (55), did not like the so-called ‘Tea + Omakase’, which mainly consisted of imported teas such as pu-erh tea, oolong tea, and matcha tea. So, I made a meal entrusted to me with 5 types of Jeju tea and teas made with Jeju field crops.
There is no set menu. It varies depending on the season and weather. It’s like this. Treat your palate with fig leaf tea with a subtle coconut flavor. Dry the picked tea leaves indoors and outdoors, in sunny and shaded places, and steep the unroasted white tea for 3 minutes. 3 minutes is measured using a small hourglass. Next is tea flower black tea, which is made by leaving the raw tea material with flowers for about 24 hours to give it flavor. Afterwards, the green tea is roasted at 200 degrees Celsius over high heat for about 40 minutes to minimize oxidation and cleanse the palate with Jeju roasted tea that removes the bitter taste. And finish with caffeine-free Gujeolcho. These days, First Water Matcha Latte is available, made with First Water Matcha using young tea leaves grown only in the shade. In between teas, tea snacks and rice cakes made with Jeju crops throughout the year, such as mung beans, dried persimmons, citrons, citrus fruits, and carrots, remind you of the taste of tea.
As you listen to the story of the tea from the chef who brews the tea in front of the guests and inhale the taste and aroma, the lyrics of the song, ‘This is how the seasons fall,’ come to mind. The season comes down to my body through tea and stays for a while.
Tea isn’t the only thing that captures the season. Let’s experience it at ‘Scene of Jeju’, where Jeju shirts are made using natural dyes. Place eucalyptus leaves and silver grass in an eco bag that has been pretreated by soaking it in iron powder water for about 20 minutes. Wrap it around an iron rod, wrap it, tie it, and steam it. The tannin in the leaves reacts with heat, engraving the eucalyptus and leaving a faint trace of the silver grass.
● ‘Jeju people live looking at the horizon’
There is a sentence like this in ‘Discovery of Korea – Jeju Island’. ‘The winter tit, which is as common as a sparrow, leaves the valley of Hallasan Mountain and comes down to the village in search of red camellia flowers in late winter. Every time the copper tit cries, “Hoogaegyook,” a camellia flower blooms… .’
The village where winter tits come down is Camellia Village in Sillim-ri, Namwon-eup. Of the 560 residents, 530 are involved in tangerine farming, and with the idea of doing something other than farming, they planted 400 camellia trees starting in 2007. It wasn’t that there was no connection with Dongbaek at all. In 1706, camellia trees were planted around the house of Gwangsan Kim, who first moved to this village. This is why Jeju Island Local Monument No. 27 camellia colony is located here.
Camellia seeds can be squeezed into oil and eaten or applied to the skin. Only native camellia seeds can be eaten. When local grandmothers collect seeds, we pay them. Wash and dry the seeds, select the healthy ones, and roast them at 200 degrees for 30 minutes. When you squeeze one seed, about 2 liters of oil comes out. I tried drinking freshly squeezed oil. It’s savory without being greasy. I understand why there was once talk of using it for food instead of sesame oil. At the ‘Dongbaek Village Mill’ in the village, you can also eat bibimbap made with camellia oil.
Camellia flowers bloom at different times even on the same tree. It blooms on one branch, and when it falls, it blooms on the other branch. A similar scene can be seen in a space called ‘Haevichi Hotel & Resort Jeju’ Dark Room. This is ‘Una Lumino Callidus Spiritus (One Light, Clever Spirit)’ by artist Woo-Ram Choi, who creates an unknown moving mechanical life form out of iron. Although it is a colony of barnacles, the way they close their mouths and open and close one by one to glow is reminiscent of the blooming and burden of camellia flowers.
In the winter, Haevichi Hotel & Resort Jeju offers programs to explore Darabi Oreum, 342m above sea level, known as the ‘Queen of Oreums,’ or visit Dongbaek Village. In the morning, you can ride your bike along the road along Pyoseon Beach. I pedal slowly, remembering the Jeju word ‘ganse’, which means laziness. The horizon you see wherever you go becomes your companion.