The idea of going to Europe to be a farmer
Zhao Li was born in the city of Hefei, an intellectual family. 2003 summer after graduating from Fudan University, she stayed in Shanghai, a large company operating medical equipment as a planning clerk, the daytime computer work, the night alone in the steamer-like hut tossing and turning. In contrast to the city's rising temperatures, her enthusiasm for work was cooling. Not willing to stick to a pool of stagnant water, Zhao Li, woke up every morning, the first thought, is how to change their status quo.
One day, her cousin, who was studying in Germany, sent her some photos from the Internet of her work on a local farm, which made Zhao Li envious. Only to see the green grass, my sister drove a group of cows, blue sky and white clouds, the "cowherd girl" is simply an angel. And in the mountains of deep purple "sea", she blushed slightly, is bending down low with a knife meticulously cut lavender flower spike, full of exotic idyllic life looks so cozy.
"If I could go to Europe to be a farmer, it would be wonderful!" These photos, with a romantic texture, like a gentle little hand, gently clutched Zhao Li's infinitely fascinated heart.
The following spring, with the help of her uncle, who was a businessman in Europe, she finally arrived in Bonn, Germany. The car in the field speeding, the window from time to time swept through the large pastures and forests, which are also dotted with flocks of cattle and sheep. All of this is like a richly colored painting of an idyllic landscape.
At home, Zhao Li has never seen a farmer with this kind of grandeur: four houses lined up along the way, each with two to three hundred square meters. The first is a cylindrical warehouse, stacked with unsold wheat and beans.
The second house is a tool room with drilling machines, planers and other machines, like the workshop of a small factory, with all the tools needed to repair everything from cars to tractors. The third house is the garage, a simple bungalow that houses two trucks, two tractors, a harvester, a planter, a hoeing machine, a baler and a digger.
Full of novelty, working is better than going to college
After working here for nearly a year, Zhao Li came back to Vostp, a small-scale family farm.
Tony, the man of the house, says humorously that raising a herd of cows here can be more fun than flying airplanes on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq.
He was previously a pilot in the RAF.
"I've been hit by artillery fire a couple of times on missions and I've been shot at. Back then, you always felt like there was a bullet engraved with your name, and someone pulled the trigger once and that bullet was one step closer to you."
After retiring from the Army, he married a German girl he met online and bought a small 100-acre farm here. Mr. Tony said the farm was the life he had dreamed of since he was a child.
"It was either own a farm or own a cruise ship."
The young couple raise more than 200 purebred cows.
The next day, Zhao Li is on the job. The mornings are regular milking time, but having never even seen a cow in real life before, she couldn't bring herself to lean forward. And the funny thing is, when she managed to get up the courage to squat down to the side of the cow's stomach, and carefully worked for half a day, the milk that came out was just a little bit, and there was no way to make the milk fall into the basin accurately, spilling all over the place. After mastering the method of milking the cow, Zhao Li suddenly felt that it took so much effort to do a seemingly careless thing.
All day long, milking the cows, fertilizing the vineyards, pulling weeds, a few jobs to do down, although a little tired, but compared to the old boring office life, Zhao Li still really experience the fullness of this simple life.
When the farmer, hard work
Living in Germany for a period of time, Zhao Li found a very interesting phenomenon, the local people are particularly fond of organic vegetables. This kind of ecological vegetables without chemical fertilizers, pesticides and ripening agents, although the price is incredibly expensive, but because of the green environmental protection, in the market is particularly sought after. Taste, only to find that the taste of this dish aromatic sweet, especially original flavor.
"Even taking the simplest way of cooking, casually steaming it or tossing it into a salad with a pinch of salt, it will be delicious."
Funny enough, despite the fact that growing vegetables is quite lucrative, local farmers have little interest in it due to the hassle of managing it, and are instead happy to grow grain and grapes (for wine) on a large scale.
Suddenly, Zhao Li had a very bold idea: why not rent a piece of land and specialize in growing the most profitable ecological vegetables?
Said to do, in the spring of 2006, she first in a friend rented 200 acres of land, because only 30,000 euros on hand, not to mention the purchase of machinery and equipment, and even the money to rent the land is not enough, fortunately, the bank can provide a small amount of low-interest loans, which helped Zhao Li to solve the pressing problem. The most expensive thing in Germany is labor, but there are a lot of Romanians working here, not to mention the cheap wages, and they work fast and efficiently, and the locals like to hire them.
Thus, Zhao Li began to lead five workers to plow the land, shoveling soil to make ridges to surround a piece of border field, each border is planted with different vegetables. At home Zhao Li is a "grain" girl, not to mention planting vegetables, now including greenhouse cultivation seedlings, and even driving a small tractor, she must learn. Gradually, Zhao Li's white hands were covered with thick calluses.
That day, Zhao Li saw flax for the first time in the potato field. At that time, she was still praising them from the inside because of their beauty. But soon the plant with its blue-purple flowers bothered her. Because you can't use herbicides to grow organic vegetables, you have to pull out the thorny weeds by hand, "face down in the dirt".
Farm Expansion, Wealth and Happiness
It is gratifying to know that Zhao Li's hard work has not been in vain. Not long ago, persimmon peppers began to bear fruit, hanging up a small green lantern. Strawberries are not willing to be lonely, red fruit have poked their heads out, very lovely, top flower with thorns of the cucumber is a promising growth. After the relevant departments of laboratory tests, a variety of environmental indicators are qualified, so Zhao Li's ecological vegetables after strict packaging, was placed on the shelves of the major supermarkets in Bonn.
The first year, in addition to all kinds of expenses girl net income of 180,000 euros, in the eyes of the German rich, this wealth may be insignificant, but for a new vegetable grower, the bull knife on the small try to have such a harvest has been very good. This also greatly inspired Zhao Li in foreign countries entrepreneurial enthusiasm!
Then she rented a large piece of land, and planted the British "Prince Fruit", Japanese mini pumpkin, France, small-leaf parsley and U.S. coriander, etc., these novel varieties are not only beautiful in appearance, and some of the melons and fruits modeling is also very peculiar, so that the people are very wide-eyed.
These vegetables are in short supply as soon as they hit the market.
In 2008, Zhao Li through friends to help "disk" two family farms on the verge of bankruptcy, set up their own Aitap organic vegetable company, and since the general manager.
Today, she has a total area of more than 2,000 acres of ecological vegetable planting base. In addition to Germany, the products are also exported to Belgium and Luxembourg and other countries. In Germany for 5 years, Zhao Li created a wealth of more than 1 million euros.
(From Youth Digest)