{"id":8460,"date":"2015-12-14T12:37:45","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T04:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/?p=8460"},"modified":"2022-03-30T17:01:17","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T09:01:17","slug":"simple-living-toyau-soil-workshops-hong-kong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/2015\/12\/simple-living-toyau-soil-workshops-hong-kong\/","title":{"rendered":"Earthbound"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Discover simple living, from the soil up<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>By Zoe Lai<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is not a restaurant, this is not a ceramics workshop, this is not a farm. This is a space to<br \/>\npractise living\u201d says the description on the Facebook page for Toyau, which means literally \u201cmud<br \/>\nhill\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The idea for Toyau came from 42-year-old \u201cMr Ko\u201d (who prefers not to give him full name) who<br \/>\nmoved to Ma Shi Po village in Fanling a few years ago. For Ko, the Sheung Shui space represents<br \/>\nsimple living and a return to the basics. After ditching city life, he learned to farm, cook and to<br \/>\nmake his own bowls and dishes out of mud. \u201cWe can make good use of soil to produce our daily<br \/>\nnecessities,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>In order to share this lifestyle with others he began to hold workshops at weekends but he knew it<br \/>\nwould be hard for him to promote his message on his own. So he gathered friends he met in Ma<br \/>\nShi Po to run Toyau. The friends have different talents and skills \u2013 there is a farmer, a<br \/>\nphotographer, a ceramics artist and a pastry chef.<\/p>\n<p>Visitors can take part in activities such as baking, pottery making and farming as a way to unwind<br \/>\nand learn about nature.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike most workshops, Toyau does not give participants the materials they need for the classes.<br \/>\nIn the pottery workshop, they first have to dig up soil from Toyau\u2019s farm, then wash, filter and dry<br \/>\nit before kneading and clumping it into clay. Only then can they mould the clay with their hands to<br \/>\nmake bowls. The whole process takes two Sundays.<\/p>\n<p>Ko stresses Toyau is not just a venue providing weekend recreation activities for city folk. \u201cI stay in<br \/>\nToyau for the long term,\u201d he says. \u201cWe open Toyau during weekends to tell the public about our<br \/>\nvision in life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Recently, Toyau reduced the numbers of workshops it holds so members can spend more time<br \/>\ncultivating the farmland and improving the soil quality. But Ko says there should be more activities<br \/>\nnext year.<\/p>\n<p>Toyau is at 7, Wah Shan Village, Sheung Shui. You can take the 73K bus or 59K minibus from the<br \/>\nbus station in Sheung Shui\u2019s Landmark North to get there. Check their Facebook page<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/toyau.wahshan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/toyau.wahshan\/<\/a> for details on the latest workshops.<\/p>\n<p><em>Edited by Godric Leung<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A space in Sheung Shui hosts workshops for people who want to ditch city life for a while and get hands on with nature by making pottery from actual soil. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1939,11,18],"tags":[57,205,413],"class_list":["post-8460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-issue-138","category-photo-story","category-vchoice","tag-art","tag-hong-kong","tag-rural-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8460"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20851,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8460\/revisions\/20851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}