About this journey
Activity details:
Big Sister's family goes to the fields to pick seasonal vegetables (whatever is ready to eat, they pick it).
After the rainy season, Big Sister's family uses preserved mushrooms to simmer chicken soup, and stir-fry mixed mushrooms with bacon as a side dish. Big Sister will prepare some traditional local home-style dishes.
Back in the courtyard, everyone gathers around the stove to cook and prepare the meal together.
Enjoy dinner in the courtyard.
Cancellation and refund policy: see end of text.
The customer service in the group is @Li Zhenhao.
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Big Sister lives at the foot of Cangshan in Yinqiao, in a traditional new Bai-style house with a small courtyard, white walls and blue edges, locally called "clear water house."
Not far from home is her own vegetable garden, where she grows common vegetables and melons primarily for her own consumption. The garden is tidy and well-maintained, without pesticides. Usually, if there's surplus, she gives some to me, and occasionally I pick some myself: arugula, tomatoes, cucumbers, various greens, potatoes, pea shoots, carrots, pumpkins, and taro. Like most locals, she is almost self-sufficient in vegetables.
Big Sister has three sisters living in neighboring villages, and they still maintain the large-family tradition of cooking together over a wood-fired stove every day. In spring, they pick tea leaves and wild greens; in summer, they gather mushrooms, celebrate the Torch Festival and the Benzhu Festival, worship the mountain god, and gather for festivals and holidays.
Big Sister's home is not open to the public. She is the head cook for our mushroom-picking activity, preparing farmhouse mushroom meals only for our events. Her three sisters and grandmother are all experts at mushroom picking. During the rainy season, they get up early every day to go up the mountain to pick delicious mushrooms for our lunch.
Yunnan locals love eating mushrooms. After the rainy season, Big Sister's family dries the mushrooms they picked or freezes them, so they can enjoy delicious wild mushrooms even when out of season.
The harvesting and dinner activity includes chicken soup with mushrooms, stir-fried mixed mushrooms, and other local home-style dishes, such as traditional Bai banquet crispy pork. Usually, the dishes feature whatever vegetables are in season. Occasionally, there are wild greens collected on the mushroom-picking trail.
They slaughter one pig a year and make bacon from the pork, which becomes a favorite side dish for many guests. Some summer mushroom-picking guests who enjoy the meal may want to visit again or buy some of Big Sister's bacon and mushrooms.
When spring comes and it's tea-picking season, ferns appear on the mountain. Big Sister's family has opened a new plot of land and planted various vegetables that are ready to harvest. The whole activity feels like visiting a local village relative's house for a home-style meal—an ordinary day.
If Big Sister's family picked tea leaves in the morning, in the afternoon everyone will stir-fry and pack the tea, and in the evening, they'll add a dish of scrambled eggs with tender wild tea leaves. If they went looking for ferns in the morning, they'll add a fern dish to dinner. This is part of their daily life, not a fixed activity.
Activity time:
3:00 PM to 7:00 PM.
Together, go to the fields to pick vegetables—whatever is available. Pick some greens, dig up some potatoes, or pick up a big pumpkin.
Return to the courtyard to wash vegetables, gather firewood, and start the fire.
Children help with the fire while Big Sister works at the stove.
Dinner includes mushroom and bacon stir-fry, light and delicious mushroom chicken soup, seasonal greens picked that day, and local home-style dishes. Both children and adults can enjoy. Often, summer mushroom-picking guests also want to visit Big Sister's home for a meal, but since it's not a restaurant, it is not open to the public. Currently, only our summer mushroom home-style meals are provided.
After picking mushrooms in summer, everyone gets wet from the rain. Big Sister's husband lights a fire in the courtyard for everyone to warm up.
Last year's Torch Festival: guides celebrated with Big Sister's family.
Big Sister's family traditional Bai banquet.
Cancellation and refund policy (operate through the mini-program order system):
Before the activity starts:
Within 12 hours: 30% refund
12-24 hours: 50% refund
24-48 hours: 70% refund
More than 48 hours: 100% refund
No refund after the activity starts.
Full refund due to weather (please have the guide handle the cancellation).
*Fairness principle: our cancellation and refund policy is bilateral. If the activity cannot proceed after receiving a confirmed booking and establishing the group chat (except for weather reasons), we will compensate at the same proportion.
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