Did you hear the one about the Texan rancher who visits a Hong Kong farm? Having seen the size of the Hong Kong smallholding, he brags to the local farmer that it takes him three days to drive round his land. "Funny, I used to own a car like that," replies the local.
We have, the government says, more than 450 organic farms. But given our shortage of land, many of these must be the size of suburban back gardens in other countries. Given also that organic farms have famously small yields, you have to wonder what purpose they serve. Feeding the 5,000 might be a stretch.
Perhaps this speculation is missing the point, and the produce is so marvellous that it justifies the hobbyist farmers' use of the land space. Last Saturday, we decided to buy some produce from our nearest organic farm - a five minute hike away - and conduct some unscientific tests on the produce.
We started off buying some basil. At HK$10 for four stems, this was cheaper than buying from our local ParknShop. It made a great pesto, but was unremarkable in a tomato and cucumber salad. One-nil to the organic farmers? Not really. Later that day, we bought a basil plant for HK$25 that should carry on producing the herb for months.
Next up were cucumbers. One was a conventional salad cucumber, and the other a type we haven't seen before. Both ended up in a salad. We were happy we hadn't paid significantly more than for cukes at the supermarket. These were nice, but had no exceptional qualities.
Last was the ginger. This was zingy, and unlike the old tat often available in my locality, not totally fibrous. The stinger was that, at HK$40, the piece we bought cost double the supermarket price.