Farmer Fong and family grow together and give it away

Hong Kong may well be a city of concrete and closed doors, but out in rural Tai O, there's a farming family that embraces Lantau locals and strangers alike. A 10-minute walk from the touristy marketplace, past grannies dozing through the clatter of mahjong games and dogs so accustomed to strangers they don't bark, a village temple looms into sight.

Nearby stands an anonymous house with an eye-catching collection of potted shrubs and a small counter selling various foods such as char-grilled octopus and star fruit. Although surprised by the potted plants, passers-by are even more taken aback when they venture beyond the house and into the back yard, where they find a wide range of vegetables and fruit grown by the Fong family.

Pointing at about 300 potted shrubs, vegetables and fruit trees, Peter Fong Koon-fook, 69, a retired kaito (private ferry) captain-cum-hobby farmer, said what the family grew provided both food and fun.

'They are like toys to us,' Mr Fong said. His wife, Fong Cheung Sze-hing, 61 - an ex-engineer who helped her husband with the family ferry that ran from Tai O to Tuen Mun via Sha Lo Wan for about 30 years - is also an avid gardener.

What started in 1986 as a tiny vegetable plot grown by their 39-year-old daughter Irene Fong Wai-ying - one of seven children aged between 28 and 42 - was taken over by the native Tai O couple in 1988. As more land was cleared as a snake-prevention measure, the garden grew bigger ... until today it is about 30,000 sq ft of farm. (The family does not own the land. It was a family friend who rented it and the family used it for fun.)

While Mr Fong took on the potted shrubs in front of the house, Mrs Fong tended the vegetable patch in the back yard, joining forces in the care of their fruit trees. Their children were weekend farmers and helped them plough the land and tend the crops.