Slow Food Flavored in the Traditional Market Village

Seogyeongdeul Traditional Market Village

Recently a food that is slow in opposition to fast food, so called, ‘slow food’, is newly emerged. Slow food is a food cooked for a long time by using fresh food materials obtained directly from nature through fermentation or traditional recipe. In the south region of Gyeonggi-do, there are rural experience villages where people not only taste slow food but also directly cook it, and the Icheon Seogyeongdeul Traditional Market is representative

Seogyeong-ri, Moga-myeon, Icheon is located 12 km away in the northeast direction of Seolseong and Anseong from Icheon city. It is often called, ‘Seogyeongdeul Village’. When you enter an approach of the village, you can know it is a typical farm village. Low and gentle ground spreads, and in the upper part of the village a large reservoir is located. Also there is a monument that lets visitors know it is a traditional market village. Currently in Seogyeongdeul village 218 households live.  

The birth of Seogyeongdeul traditional market village dates back to 1992. At that time, the Gyeonggi Institute of Farm Development started the Extra Income Promotion Project for Rural Women. From then, residents in Seogyeongdeul started to plant beans as the second crop of tobacco and hot pepper, and ferment soybeans. In 1997, they started to build a 40 pyeong assembly building and just made a fire for cooking but at last they expanded the glass greenhouses of 58 pyeong, and had a fermentation rooms, jar storage rooms, and processing rooms. And in 1999, they built a 50 pyeong of precocity room, and started to sell soybean paste, soy sauce, hot pepper paste, and fermented soybeans through a large distribution network such as the Agricultural Cooperative and Hanaro Mart, etc.

Currently Seogyeongdeul produces around 24 ton of beans. They make soybean paste, hot pepper paste, and fermented soybeans with these beans. Among these, they produce the fermented soybeans the most. They make around 10 ton of them a year. And they produce 4 ton of soybean paste, and one ton of hot pepper paste and soy sauce respectively a year.

The traditional sauce made in Seogyeongdeul is never mixed with chemical condiments.
Every November, the residents boil soybeans, ferment them naturally, dry them by the sunlight, and float them in the clean salt water for around 40 days. And they separate fermented soybeans from soy sauce to make them mature for more than six months. As for salt, they use only the domestic sun-dried salt from which salty water was removed for three years. They also plan to get organic certification for beans produced in the Seogyeongdeul so soon.

The most popular sauce produced in Seogyeongeul village is the fermented soybeans. Among these, the bean of fermented soybean that was produced by drying fermented soybeans and the powder of fermented soybean are the most popular. The bean and powder can be had with water not being boiled, or can be eaten with milk, yogurt, or fresh grinded dry meal, and it makes an excellent effect in blood sugar reduction and anti-cancer action.

In Seogyeongdeul Village, various programs enabling people to taste, learn, and experience sauces are prepared. From September to October, people can experience harvesting sweet potatoes, catching grasshoppers, threshing beans, and making bean curd. In addition to them, substantial experiences are prepared monthly. Every March, people can experience making soybean sauce. In April and May, people can experience rice-planting and curd bean making. From June to early July, people can experience harvesting potatoes and wild flowers, in July to August, catching loaches and harvesting peaches. In the stream flowing around the village, people can catch crawfishes that are said to live in the cleanest water.

This village seems to start to be born again as a well-being village next year. It is planned to make a walk road around the village and form an inn to serve Makgoli(raw rice wine) and clear, refined rice wine. It is scheduled to make experience programs various. It is also planned to build an education hall and cooking room as well as exhibit a traditional market to host the traditional market experience event for elementary, middle and high school students and perform an experience education for adults. People can enjoy the sentiments of old farm villages, while lodging in the village center located in the entrance of the village.

- Name: Seogyeongdeul Traditional Market Village
- Address: Seogyeong-ri, Moga-myeon, Icheon, Gyeonggi-do
- Contact and homepage: 031-632-5678 http://seogyeong.cybericheon.go.kr
- Direction: Jungbu expressway Seoicheon IC– National highway no. 3 in the direction of Janghowon –

Bokhagyo – National highway no. 42 in the direction of Seolseong

- Charges related to facility use and experience: lodging in the village center 20,000 won per person (lunch, dinner, breakfast are provided), various experiences 20,000 won per person
- Surrounding tourism attractions: Seolbong Park, Haegang Ceramics Museum, World Ceramic Center, Termeden Spa & Resort
- Information on lodging: Hotel Miranda (031-633-2001) is where people can enjoy lodging and spa together. Doja Pension (031-638-8359) is the only place where people can experience ceramic making and lodging together. 

- Surrounding recommended restaurants: There are many Korean rice restaurants around the pottery village. Gomijeong (031-634-4811), Icheon Ssalbapjip (031-634-4813), Cheongmok (031-634-5414), Jeongilpum (031-631-1188), and Imgeumnim Ssalbapjip (031-632-3646), etc., are famous. If you want unique delicacies, let’s go to the ‘Sanyacho Sijeoleumsik’ (031-633-9494). It serves a food cooked with grasses that wildly grow in the mountain and field. It uses only the ferment and vinegar, which were produced by fermenting native grasses, for not only food stuff but also all condiments. According to the served foods, the prices are 15,000~35,000 won.