▲ Gunwoo Farm Products / Chairman Yongdae Kim

Rich in fiber and iron, dried radish greens are one of the common side dishes on the Korean table during the winter. Back in the days, farmers and families gather around the table and, watching the snow covered field, warmed up their stomach with a bowl of this soup. How nostalgic. Nutritional-wise, the vegetable is kwon to be good for anemia and arteriosclerosis. 

Located in Sindun-myeon, Icheon City, Gunwoo Farm Products is second to none when it comes to vegetables that come onto our daily table. From dried radish greens to cucumber pickles and brackens, they are processed at the cutting edge facilities of its newly built factory under strict health and hygiene rules. The facilities process 20 tons a day and the waste water is thoroughly filtered for recycle. 

What makes dried radish greens of Gunwoo different from others is that they are thick and tight yet soft and smooth. In terms of storage, they are fast frozen for 6 hours and kept below 45 degree Celsius so that the fiber is intact throughout. The dried radish greens harvested in early autumn go through 40 days of processing and kept and supplied until May next year. The popularity of Gunwoo’s is proved by yearly 2,000 tons of produce and distribution nationwide and around 40,000 farm houses supply quality vegetable to Gunwoo. 

If dried radish greens are a popular choice for winter appetite, cucumber pickles are summer’s; and Gunwoo’s are made exactly like homemade but in large quantity and they are crispy and smoothly chewy. They are packed and delivered 200g for single households, 1kg for family use and 10kg for business. 

Gunwoo’s Chairman Yongdae Kim is often called as a guru of Korean vegetable among the residents around the factory. He built his fame as an honest business man and as a man who willingly donates for people in need. And this of his character contributed to have increased the sales from 50,000 won ($42) a day at the initial stage of the business to 3 billion won ($2.5 million) sales in 2019. 

“I didn’t even earn enough to fuel my car when I started selling vegetables at Garakdong Market. I pushed on nevertheless without a day’s absence and this piled up my diligence and trustworthiness to market merchants and the volume of trade gradually increased. So I have to say that half of my success goes to hard working and honesty.”

If you feel like a warm broth of the olden day’s vegetable soup this winter, pop into a restaurant to have a go or it might make you feel more like it to swing by a traditional market to pick up fresh vegetable to cook at home.