From Developer to Apple Farmer: How Clean Air and Simpler Life Helped Beat Blood Cancer
Creatrip Team
4 months ago
Li Gwang-su (59), a former real estate developer, was diagnosed with stage-3 blood cancer in 2015. Choosing to accept the diagnosis, he moved with his wife Kim Woo-hee (57) to Myeonggae-ri in Hongcheon, a mountain village near Odaesan National Park, buying 15,200 pyeong of land to start Odaesan Apple Storage. At about 700–800m elevation near Guryongryeong (a mountain pass nicknamed “Korea’s Alps”), they cultivate 1,500 apple trees and practice careful orchard work such as flower thinning (jeokhwa). The cleaner air, physical labor, and medical treatments (including chemotherapy and 25 radiation sessions) coincided with his recovery. His wife, influenced by family apple-growing roots in Cheongsong and motivated by his care, became a vegan (no animal products) expert and founded Vegan Helens to develop organic, antibiotic-free vegan products — soon planning apple tarts made from their harvest. The farm’s sales grew from about 1 million KRW in the first harvest to 70 million KRW last year, with a target of 100 million KRW this year. The couple now enjoy rural life, trekking local trails and restoring the land over a decade, hoping to make the orchard a place where visitors can experience harvest joy.
