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Living Liquid, Not Enzyme: Collect at Dawn, Face South

Master Cho Han-kyu, interpreted by Kim Chang, Founder of Korean Natural Farming (Janong)

Spoken in Korean. Translated to English and checked line by line.

Cho says what we make isn't an enzyme but a living fermented liquid, and tells the loaves and fishes as a picture of how one lump of Microbes covers 6,000 pyeong. He weeps, then says farming is done with love, not technique. The practical core: collect material when the plant holds the most of nature's power, in the morning, and collect IMO where the first sun falls; sunlight's far-infrared growth ray is why sprouts face south. He ends on three sets of parents: the crops that raise you, so pesticide is parricide.

What they found

The question

What makes a Natural Farming solution alive, and when and where should you collect for the strongest one?

How they tested it

Cho at the flip chart with Kim Chang interpreting. He adds to the vinegar sheet: 酵素 — 化學物質 (enzyme = chemical substance), 醱酵液 — 生命體 (fermented liquid = living thing), then 太陽光線 / 遠적외선 (sunlight / far-infrared). Much of this stretch is Bible stories (the loaves and fishes, the widow's oil, Cana) used as parables; they're translated in the transcript. Around 2:35:15 Cho is in tears and the room is quiet. At the end he writes the three parents on a second chart, which isn't legible in the video.

What was compared
  • When to collect material — Pick papaya, banana or mango in the morning (the interpreter: before sunrise, at dawn), when the plant holds the most of nature's power. (Cho's Korean; the interpreter.)
  • Where to collect Microbes (IMO) — On ground facing south (he also says east) where the sun comes in first. (Cho's Korean.)
Results
  1. What we make isn't an enzyme (효소) but a fermented liquid (발효액), and a fermented liquid is a living thing

    Board: 酵素 — 化學物質; 醱酵液 — 生命體. The enzyme is the substance microbes produce; while the microbes are alive, the liquid is alive.

    ▶ 2:27:37

  2. Cho's test for a professor who called it an enzyme: was it made by water, chemicals or microbes? If microbes, it's alive

    Told as a joke: the professor 'went red in the face and ran off'.

    ▶ 2:29:01 As spoken

  3. One fist-sized lump of Microbes (IMO) can be multiplied for about 6,000 pyeong

    6,000 pyeong is about 2 ha, about 5 acres; the interpreter said '6,000 acres' and the room corrected it to 5 acres. Told with the loaves and fishes.

    ▶ 2:33:57 As spoken

  4. Given with love, we can bring dying land back to life

    The interpreter said 'change the whole universe'.

    ▶ 2:34:40 As spoken

  5. Farming isn't done with technique; it's done with love that gives

    Not interpreted. Cho had just been in tears.

    ▶ 2:35:30 As spoken

  6. Solutions made after a fight, in anger, won't work for the crop

    Same as a dinner cooked after a marital fight tasting bad. Farming goes well only when every living thing is happy.

    ▶ 2:36:56 As spoken

  7. People's greed has overworked the crops

    To satisfy greed, crops were made to work far too hard (혹사).

    ▶ 2:40:07 As spoken

  8. Cho says his recipes came as revelations, written down from dreams, tried, and found to work

    His Japanese book, 'Let's Bring Indigenous Microorganisms Back to Life', is 'not a best seller but a steady seller'; most agriculture professors there have it.

    ▶ 2:40:37 As spoken

  9. When making materials, what matters most isn't which plant but when you collect it: when the plant takes in the most of nature's power

    ▶ 2:42:11 As spoken

  10. Cabbage pulled in the morning makes better kimchi than cabbage pulled in the evening

    Mothers know it by taste. The interpreter said 'afternoon'.

    ▶ 2:42:57 As spoken

  11. Pick papaya, banana or mango in the morning to make your materials

    Interpreter: before the sun comes up, at dawn; pick mature fruit early.

    ▶ 2:43:30 As spoken

  12. Strongest Microbes (IMO): collect where the sun comes in first, facing south (or east)

    Cho says he's telling this in Hawaiʻi for the first time, because now there are ears ready to hear.

    ▶ 2:45:03 As spoken

  13. Sunlight holds far-infrared (원적외선); within it, the growth ray (생육광선) makes crops grow

    Board: 太陽光線 / 遠적외선. The interpreter said 'ultraviolet'; Cho settled it in English: 'Infrared. No UV.'

    ▶ 2:45:46

  14. Watch any sprouting seed: its head faces due south, to receive the growth ray

    South is where it sees sun all day. If you looked at your seedlings with love, like your own child, you'd know; not knowing is a careless farmer's answer.

    ▶ 2:48:17 As spoken

  15. God built our house, the earth, and we treat it carelessly with chemical fertilizer and pesticide

    'We live on a star.'

    ▶ 2:52:31 As spoken

  16. Everyone has three sets of parents: birth parents (생부모), raising parents (양부모) and teaching parents (사부모)

    The crops that feed you, corn and tomatoes, are your raising parents. The interpreter said 'corn, papaya, or rice'.

    ▶ 2:54:51 As spoken

  17. Spraying pesticide on the crops that raise you is parricide (존속 살해죄)

    'Should you farm in a way that kills your raising parents, or in a way that loves them?'

    ▶ 2:56:47 As spoken

Hold it loosely
  • Much of this page is faith and parable; the farming teaching sits inside it.
  • The 6,000-pyeong figure is Cho's rule of thumb; no amount of IMO per area or trial was given.
  • Several of Cho's Korean lines are garbled in both machine passes (marked … in the transcript), including the start of the growth-ray explanation.
  • Cho also says anger puts poison in the body and that warmth from a cooking fire or campfire prevents illness; these were not tested and we don't repeat them as advice.
For your farm
  • Harvest material for your solutions in the early morning, from mature plants.
  • Collect Microbes (IMO) where the first sun of the day lands, on south- or east-facing ground.
  • Treat your solutions as living: they're made by microbes and stay alive while the microbes are.
  • Make solutions in a calm, good mood; Cho says the maker's state goes into them.
  • Watch which way your seedlings face; it tells you where their light comes from.

Next to Master Cho's teaching

  • Agrees

    A fermented liquid is a living thing, not just an enzyme His 2005 advanced text calls FPJ 'a living entity of natural active substances'. Here he goes further: it shouldn't be called an enzyme at all.

    CGNF Advanced (2005.08) (English translation), p. 10

  • Agrees

    Collect materials in the morning His recipe book says to collect just before sunrise, when plants hold the most nutrients and vitality. The kimchi-cabbage comparison is new.

    Cho, Natural Farming Agricultural Materials (Recipe), p. 34

  • Goes further

    Strongest IMO from the spot the first sun hits, facing south In Hawaiʻi in 2018 Cho said to collect from both north- and south-facing ground and make separate batches. Here he names only the first-sun, south-facing spot as strongest. The two fit together but aren't the same advice.

    2018/Cho - advanced hawaii/master cho 2018 1-2 @ 1:18:22 (translated)

  • Agrees

    Materials made in anger won't work He says the same in the older DVD lectures: the anger is absorbed into the materials.

    Cho - DVD rips/NAT_FARM_9 @ 1:18:59 (translated)

“What we make as Natural Farming materials is not an enzyme. It's a fermented liquid.”

▶ 2:27:37

“Our farming is not done with technique. It is done with love that gives.”

▶ 2:35:30

“If you had looked at it with real love, like your own baby, you'd know exactly which way its head is looking.”

▶ 2:47:44

“Should you farm in a way that kills your raising parents, or in a way that loves your raising parents?”

▶ 2:57:10

In this talk

  1. 2:27:23Not an enzyme: a living fermented liquid
  2. 2:30:36Five loaves, two fish, one lump of Microbes
  3. 2:35:14Farm with love, not technique or anger
  4. 2:38:08The rice jar, the widow's oil, revelations in dreams
  5. 2:42:10Collect when nature's power peaks: morning harvest
  6. 2:43:58Strongest Microbes where the first sun hits
  7. 2:45:45Far-infrared, the growth ray; sprouts face south
  8. 2:49:54Fire's warmth; we live on a star
  9. 2:53:23Three sets of parents: pesticide is parricide

Transcript

English translation, checked against the Korean as spoken.