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Hei Kiu Au

The meaning of “farm-to-table” has changed in Hong Kong in recent years. The practice used to be more common in down-to-earth places, but has come to be associated with overpriced produce and Michelin-star restaurants.
However, a weekend gathering at Blue Girl Organic Farm in Tai Tong, in Hong Kong’s New Territories, showed that the true concept of farm-to-table is still alive and well.
The farm, which has been run by Flora Wong Wah-fong for the past 13 years, hosted more than 30 guests for an experience about reconnecting with nature that was led by key players in Hong Kong’s farm-to-table scene.
These included Flora Yeung and Judith Chan, the co-founders of Formless Daily, an artisanal small-batch bakery that uses ingredients from Hong Kong farms.

The day begins with our eyes closed. Chan’s voice cuts through the birdsong, steady and unhurried, as she leads us through a meditation session.
We sit on chairs, feet flat on the ground with our hands on our knees. Chan tells us to feel our own breathing, to scan our bodies from head to toe and to notice the weight we have carried from Hong Kong’s urban sprawl that surrounds this pocket of countryside.
She describes our scramble through the overgrown path to reach Blue Girl Organic Farm as crossing a boundary – the Buddhist concept of kekkai, she says, a line between one world and another.
Then, Jing Lau, co-founder of Bu Shi Kairos – a seasonal produce platform connecting Hong Kong farmers with customers – takes us through the farm to pick and eat light-red, slightly sweet mulberries.

We then walk down to the sweet potato and sugar cane fields, where wild boars rampaged last Mid-Autumn Festival.
“Others might put an electric fence around,” Wong says, “but we believe in coexisting. We let them eat the sugarcanes, and we let the birds and mice eat the sweet potatoes. Then humans eat.”
Lau then invites everyone to take off their shoes as part of an “earthing” experience.
I stand barefoot on the hard, rugged earth beside a former beekeeper, a budding farmer, retirees, a small-business owner, parents with young children and even two poodles. Lau tells us all to walk slowly, to feel each step, to be mindful of what we are standing on. The awkwardness is quickly replaced by laughter.
By the time all of us guests are on our way to the tent for a potluck feast, we are already chatting like old friends.

The long table inside the tent is spread with dishes that tell their own stories.
Devilled eggs are made with eggs from Kwong Wah Farm in Lau Fau Shan, around 10km (6 miles) away. Next to them is the spring roll station with julienned local vegetables on one plate and thin flour pancakes – for making rolls that resemble Southeast Asian popiahs – on another.
A bowl of local beetroot ribbons is marinated in mulberry juice from Blue Girl Organic Farm and honey from a local bee farm that has kept bees for 60 years.
There are also local organic vegetables, and “kimchi” – made with carrot pulp and local bean curd fermented using a traditional Taiwanese method.


Formless Daily’s baked goods are the headliners. Loaves of focaccia sit on banana leaves freshly picked from Blue Girl Organic Farm.
They are made with wheat from Kowloon Flour Mills, rosemary grown using coffee waste at Urban Mushroom in Tuen Mun, and salt harvested from local seawater by Three Salt Cubes based in Mui Wo on Lantau Island.
The bread has a hard crust and an airy, chewy interior. Locally grown cherry tomatoes lend bursts of sweetness, while the rosemary gives each bite a herbal note. Next to the focaccia are curry and potato pies, loaves of ciabatta and other baked goodies.
The food disappears quickly, but the conversation continues.

Lois Li, a fashion designer who makes jeans, has attended four or five gatherings at Blue Girl Organic Farm. This time she has brought her own kombucha.
“Before meeting this community, I thought sustainability was just reduce, reuse, recycle,” Li says. “But after joining a few gatherings, I realised that as a self-proclaimed foodie, I knew nothing about seasonal eating. I started to view sustainability as a mindset and a habit, not something you perform once in a while.”
Lau knows this better than most. Growing up on her mother’s farm in Kwu Tung, in the far north of Hong Kong near the border with mainland China, seasonal eating was not a gimmick; it was a necessity.
“Most vegetables and fruits simply don’t grow in all four seasons,” she says.
“One misconception is that Hong Kong farms don’t have enough yield. They do – it’s just inconsistent.
“For example, when Fu Kum Organic Farm [in Lok Ma Chau, next to Kwu Tung] suddenly has a lot of dragonfruit in the summer, they don’t have enough labour to harvest and distribute. Supply spikes, but not enough people know about it.”

Lau co-founded Bu Shi Kairos in 2019 to help. The platform collects vegetables a few times a month and helps deliver them to customers’ homes. It relies on a fleet of two vans, a simple online order form and a handful of volunteers who believe that local produce should not be a luxury.
“We try to be that middleman,” Lau says. “The cost of customer-facing work, delivery and marketing is a high barrier for farmers, who just want to focus on farming. Not everyone is as lucky as me to grow up eating fresh local produce, so I just wanted to do my part.”
The Formless Daily duo have their own version of this philosophy.
Chan became a vegetarian in 2016, but did not know how to eat properly; her diet consisted of too many carbohydrates and too much processed food, and she suffered from a series of digestive issues and insomnia. The Covid-19 pandemic forced her to cook for herself. She taught herself from scratch using online tutorials.
“It’s all about intention, from how you make it to how you eat it,” she says. “We’ve already lost the connection to farming, but we can still stay grounded through cooking and eating. The food you make is a mirror of what you put into it. Even without the best ingredients, the process of cooking can heal people who live in the city.”

Chan and Yeung started offering healthy breakfasts to people living in the area. The orders grew, and they started collaborating with other home-grown initiatives, hosting gatherings such as this one at Blue Girl Organic Farm.
At the end of the gathering, Yeung, the more soft-spoken of the two, opens up about her cat, Kei Kei, who died two months after they started Formless Daily.
Shortly after the loss, Yeung went to a sourdough workshop and came home with a starter. The next morning, when the workshop instructor asked if she had named her starter, she decided to name it after her cat.
She describes the meditative process of how the starter ferments slowly, how the dough rises and how it puffs up in the oven.
First, she baked for herself. Then, she started giving it away to her neighbours, friends and anyone who needed a loaf. Watching something new grow from what was lost, then sharing it, preserved her cat’s spirit in a way that no photograph ever could.
“It’s a way to extend Kei Kei’s legacy,” she smiles. “I want to continue his life force, and share the strength and joy he gave me with our community.”
To hear about future events and initiatives, follow Blue Girl Organic Farm (@bluegirlorganicfarm), Bu Shi Kairos (@hkkairos) and Formless Daily (@formlessdaily) on Instagram.


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Food and Drinks

Authentic farm-to-table experience in Hong Kong reconnects diners to nature

A spread of baked goods by Formless Daily at the Easter potluck gathering at Blue Girl Organic Farm in April 2026. Photo: Hei Kiu Au

A fresh loaf of cherry tomato and rosemary focaccia baked by  Formless Daily, an artisanal small-batch bakery that uses ingredients from Hong Kong farms, is cut at a farm-to-table experience at Blue Girl Organic Farm in Tai Tong. Photo: Hei Kiu Au

Event participants are taken around Blue Girl Organic Farm in Tai Tong. Photo: Hei Kiu Au

Mulberries grow on a bush at Blue Girl Organic Farm. Photo: Hei Kiu Au

Bu Shi Kairos co-founder Jing Lau invites people to take off their shoes and walk on the sweet potato field. Photo: Hei Kiu Au

Fried spring rolls with local sweet potato leaves and cheese are stacked on a plate beside rice balls with local beetroot at the gathering. Photo: Hei Kiu Au

Beetroot ribbons marinated in mulberry juice and honey at the gathering. Photo: Hei Kiu Au

A spread of baked goods by Formless Daily at the gathering. Photo: Hei Kiu Au

(From left) Lau of Bu Shi Kairos holds flowers with Formless Daily co-founders Flora Yeung and Judith Chan at the farm. Photo: Hei Kiu Au

A selection of organic seasonal dishes is displayed at the gathering. Photo: Hei Kiu Au

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Lifestyle

Food & Drink

A weekend event in rural Hong Kong teaches guests the true meaning of sustainability through mindful activities and delicious seasonal food


A weekend event in rural Hong Kong teaches guests the true meaning of sustainability through mindful activities and delicious seasonal food.


Authentic farm-to-table experience in Hong Kong reconnects diners to nature

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A weekend event in rural Hong Kong teaches guests the true meaning of sustainability through mindful activities and delicious seasonal food

A weekend event in rural Hong Kong teaches guests the true meaning of sustainability through mindful activities and delicious seasonal food