“Do you know what this is?” “A cucumber!” “A pumpkin!” “This is a baby melon grown in Gochang. The farm buys the ones too small to sell and turns them into pickles. Would you like to touch one?”
On a sweltering hot afternoon on August 2, with temperatures soaring to 35 degrees Celsius, a group of children gathered at the fermentation workshop at the Sangha Farm in Sangha-myeon, Gochang-gun, North Jeolla Province. They listened attentively as the guide explained the process of turning small, unsellable baby melons into pickles, their curiosity turning into excitement. They eagerly touched the melons and posed for pictures with small, straw-woven meju - a traditional Korean fermented soybean block - draped over their shoulders.
Located about 300 kilometers from Seoul, a four-hour drive away, Sangha Farm is a rural theme park that spans 99,173 square meters. The farm, developed by dairy giant Maeil Dairies and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, first opened in April 2016. The government and Gochang-gun jointly invested 5 billion won ($3.6 million) each, and Maeil Dairies invested 10 billion won during the farm’s inception. The dairy giant later invested an additional 17 billion won.
Sangha Farm offers a space where food production, processing, sales, and distribution are seamlessly integrated. Under the official slogan “Build, Play, Eat,” the farm offers various attractions and activities, including a farm, workshops, a farmer’s market selling local specialties, a smart farm, a restaurant, a café, an animal farm, a spa, a swimming pool, and accommodations.
The farm’s workshops, where foods such as sausages, bread, fruits, soy sauce and salted fish are made, are open to the public, allowing visitors to see the production process firsthand. The farm also offers a variety of hands-on programs, ranging from farming and harvesting to making sausages, cheese, ice cream, and other products. This has made Sangha Farm particularly popular with families.
At the sausage-making workshop, visitors of all ages, including parents with children in strollers and elementary school students with their grandparents, eagerly participated in stuffing minced pork into sheep intestines to create sausages. The 41-room Hotel Farmers Village on-site was fully booked that day.
“We are happy that we are establishing ourselves as a local tourist attraction that offers various rural experience activities for the whole family,” said a Maeil Dairies representative.
Sangha Farm’s impact extends beyond tourism. Gochang-gun, where Sangha Farm is located, is one of 89 “depopulated areas” designated by the government. With a population of 51,341, Gochang-gun has seen a 14% decrease in residents over the past decade, according to government statistics. Sangha Farm has been recognized for revitalizing the region, attracting 200,000 to 300,000 visitors annually, with a cumulative total of 1.4 million visitors.
The farm has also appeared in the popular K-drama “Goblin” and the variety show “Three Meals a Day,” and it gained further attention when Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin visited and posted a photo of himself planting seedlings on his social media.
The government has also taken note of Sangha Farm’s influence in boosting the local economy. “We plan on creating more success stories like Sangha Farm in Gochang, where companies invest, and farmers and the local community coexist and attract 300,000 visitors annually,” said President Yoon Suk-yeol.
