February with Valentine’s Day is the month of love in which a lot of people around the world extend their love and gratitude to their lover, family, and friends. Westerners usually give chocolate and candies together with cards conveying their love. In East Asia where the lunar calendar is often consulted, February more often than not includes the lunar New Year’s Day. It is called Seol in Korea and Chunjie (Spring Festival) in China. On the holiday that gathers family members scattered across the country, people prepare gifts for their family. For February which includes Valentine’s Day and Spring Festival, the biggest holiday, Korea Agrafood recommends a variety of Korean farm foods which are perfect as gifts.

 

#For Valentine’s Day, give your lovers the sweetness carried in K-Food

Sweet and sour strawberry: In Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam and Thailand, Korean fruits have met such a positive reaction from local consumers that they have established themselves as popular gifts. Particularly, the South Korean strawberry is spotlighted among youths as a gift for their lovers for Valentine’s Day. It it because the South Korean strawberry boasts as its strengths high sugar content, sweet flavor, and pretty shape. Last year, the South Korean exporters and the local distributors offered prettily packaged strawberries for Valentine’s Day, thus drawing positive reaction from the local consumers.

 

 

 

 

Beautiful-Colored Spray Roses: The South Korean spray roses, which come in various colors, boast excellent freshness. So, they have long been favored by international consumers. They prefer pink, red, yellow, and white from among the diverse-ranging spray roses. The producers continue to develop new varieties meeting the preferences of international consumers, which are exported to Japan and China among others. In China, where the South Korean spray roses are sold from the local upscale flower shops, they are highlighted as premium fresh cut flowers.

 

 

 

 

Processed Red Ginseng Products That Take Care of Your Lover's Health: The processed red ginseng products are meeting sharply increased attention from international consumers. It is because the South Korean dramas and entertainment shows frequently provide exposure to the concentrated red ginseng liquid extract, which is convenient to carry around and easy to have. Therefore, one can often find foreigners visiting South Korea buy the portable concentrated red ginseng liquid extract sticks. Spotlighted for red ginseng tea, red ginseng candy, and energy drinks that let consumers verify the virtue of red ginseng at reasonable prices, the red ginseng drinks enjoy continued patronage from overseas markets.

 

 

 

 

Sweet and Soft Wine: A variety of wines made in South Korea from grape, apple, five-flavor berry, honey etc. attract attention as well-being liquors at home and abroad. Apple wine has a sweet and fresh flavor. Five-flavor wine made from five-flavor berry, a sweet red fruit, characteristically registers an excellent harmony between the sweet fruit scent and the distinctively bitter taste. Honey wine, of which honey is the main ingredient, boasts as its strengths its being soft on throat and the distinctive sweetness of honey, since it goes through about ten days’ fermentation and a half-year’s ripening.

 

 

 

 

#Good-to-Know How to Use the Korean Farm Foods as Gifts

 

The varicolored spray roses offer different uses depending on their color. First of all, the pink spray roses better be used when one confesses one’s love to someone. The yellow spray roses are recommended for those who want to convey apologies.

The processed red ginseng products better be varied with age groups. Appropriate choices for elderly parents should be the easy-to-eat red ginseng slices and the concentrated red ginseng liquid extract served in pouches. The processed red ginseng product perfect for married couples is the red ginseng capsule, and for children, we recommend the concentrated red ginseng liquid extract to which sweetness is added from fruits.

As far as wine goes, apple wine is recommended to parents who meet a lot of people. It is because apple includes polyphenols, which are effective in removing bad breath. The posh five-flavor wine and the honey wine full of sweetness are perfect as gifts for lovers.

For Spring Festival, give your loving family the Korean farm foods which boast healthiness and excellent taste

Spring Festival is one of the three biggest holidays in China. In 2019, the Spring Festival holidays last for seven days from Feb. 4 through Feb. 10. Spring Festival brings with it a great deal of consumption, as it gathers a number of family members in one place. And they exchange gifts. Thus, the Korean farm foods, locally viewed as premium health foods, can meet positive reaction if used as Spring Festival gifts. So, we introduce to you perfect South Korean-made Spring Festival gifts.

 

Hangwa for Both Taste and Nutrition: Hangwa refers to the Korean traditional confectionery which went all the way up on the dining table for the kings of the Joseon dynasty. Made with cereals, honey, pine seed, sesame, walnut, chestnut, and jujube, it boasts rich nutrition, too. It flaunts as its extra strengths a soft mouthfeel and a size that can be eaten wholly. As it focuses on rich nutrition, it would make a perfect Spring Festival gift with luxurious packaging.

 

 

 

 

The Red Ginseng Gift Set Towering as Health Food: The Korean-made red ginseng is well-known and popular as a health food among the consumers, who are greatly interested in their health. So, local consumers tend to buy the set as a gift for the Parents’ Day or as a year-end gift. So, we recommend for your gift for your parents the variety of processed red ginseng products including concentrated red ginseng liquid extract, red ginseng drinks, and red ginseng pills.

 

 

 

 

Korean Fruits Boasting Excellent Mouthfeel and Freshness: The fresh fruits from South Korea are held in high regard for their excellent quality and safety. Of them, pear, which delivers cool juice, crisp mouthfeel, and rich sweet flavor, is a fruit greatly favored by overseas consumers. Apple in turn enjoys positive reviews for its characteristic sweet and sour flavor, sugar content, and color, while persimmon, which registers high sugar content and crisp mouthfeel, is exported mainly to Southeast Asia and North America.

 

 

 

 

Citron tea, a Healthy Tea in Beautiful Yellow: Citron Tea, which includes three times as much vitamin C as lemon, is effective in preventing cold and for skin beauty. It reportedly contains a great deal of organic acids that are effective against aging and fatigue. As the South Korea-grown citron is less bitter and excellently fragrant, the Korean citron tea is highly preferred by consumers.

 

 

 

 

A Sip of Traditional Wine Shared with Family: Liquors are required during the Spring Festival when family and acquaintances get together. So the local consumers focus on the South Korea-made traditional wine which boasts luxurious packaging and appearance. The Korean traditional wine has been favorably reviewed by buyers and distributors for its good quality and posh image. We recommend it as a gift for parents, relatives etc.

 

 

 

 

Nuts Rich with Various Nutrients: Nuts are among the health foods preferred by . So, they are consumed in quantities to treat guests during the Spring Festival period. How convenient would it be to take at a time all the nuts that have the daily required nutrition? South Korea make various products including those which deliver a package of various nuts to consumers and nuts which include fruits.

 

#February with Graduation Signaling a New Start

In South Korea, February is the time period that holds graduation ceremonies for elementary, middle, and high schools as well as colleges. People present beautiful flowers to students on their graduation. So, we introduce to you flowers perfect for congratulating people on their graduation from school programs.

 

Freesia: As one of typical spring flowers just like forsythia, freesia is loved for its sweet scent which tickles your nose. Meant to show how its giver supports your start, freesia is frequently seen at graduation and matriculation ceremonies. The flower symbolizes the support for those who announces a new start with their graduation and matriculation. In Japan, freesia bouquets are more often than not witnessed in March, which falls on the graduation season. The freesia cultivars exported are Gold Rich and Shiny Gold, the exclusive varieties developed in South Korea. Shiny Gold boasts excellent erectness and strong scent. Gold Rich, which registers excellent erectness, boasts a large volume of cut flowers. Flaunting such rich scent and ample volume of cut flowers, the South Korea-grown freesia is perfect for congratulating folks on their graduation and matriculation.

 

 

 

 

Succulent Plants: Succulent plants store large quantities of water in their stems or leaves in order to survive in regions with less water and arid weather. As one has only to water them just once every ten days, even novices can raise them with ease. They not only serve natural air purifiers, but are also perfect as gifts for students as they are good as interior decorations. As succulents for exports developed by Gyeonggido Agricultural Research & Extension Services / Cactus & Succulent Research Institute, Red One and Pink Star are drawing attention for their excellent merchandisability. Red One boasts a clear flower color and a large number of flower buds, and Pink Star flaunts excellent merchandisability as pink compound flowers. Boasting various colors and shapes, it stays in bloom for an extended period. We strongly recommend you to give as congratulations gifts to students the South Korea-grown succulents, which register solid colors and are excellent ornamental flowers that are also easy to raise.

 

 

 

 

#The Korean Seol Culture

 

In Korea, Seol signifies the start of a new year. On the day, all in the family, who are scattered across the country, get together in one place. Usually, children who are gone to city head home to spend time with their parents.

And the family now home prepare food together. They make food for the ancestral service early on the day of Seol. The signature dish for Seol is tteokguk. Slices of long white rick cake are boiled in meat-brewed gravy. In Korea, people think they get another year older by eating tteokguk. Besides, family members huddle together to make dishes such as assortment of hangwa (‘Korean traditional confectionery’), jeon (‘Korean pancake’), sikhye (‘sweet rice drink’), sujeonggwa (‘persimmon punch with cinnamon’), and seasoned herbs.

 

 

 

 

On the morning of Seol, all in the family, now dressed in seolbim, arrange the food prepared and give the ancestral service. Seolbim refers to the dress for Seol. After the ancestral service is finished, family members visit their ancestors’ tombs to pay homage.

 

 

 

 

Seol has a variety of plays to enjoy. Yut Nori, which is about moving tokens (called 'mal') on a board by casting four wooden yut-sticks, is a representative folk game which all in the family can enjoy. Other major folk plays enjoyed on Seol include Neolttwigi, which has two persons jump into the air from each end of the long plank seesawing over a bale of paddy straws or a straw bag, and jegichagi, a Korean traditional outdoor game in which players kick a jegi, made with a coin or iron stick wrapped with sturdy paper or cloth, into the air and attempt to keep it aloft.

Those who want to feel the traditional culture around Seol in Korea may want to visit Folk Village in Yongin, either of the Hanok Villages in Seoul and Jeonju, or Hahoe Village in Andong.