If you take a walk, you'll see lettuce and chili peppers growing in flower beds next to apartment buildings or in empty lots in alleys. Since they're vegetables instead of flowers, you wonder, "Is this just park greenery? Can I eat it?" You start to wonder like that. But it's rude to lay a hand on them. ## It's Not Free Produce Even if it looks like a flower bed by the road, it's often a field that someone has sown and watered. So picking leaves or touching the fruit can feel like stealing to them. Even bending leaves aside to take a photo, with no bad intentions, is something to be careful about. Look with your eyes, and if you're curious, ask the owner, "Is this lettuce?" Ask them first, before anything else. They'll answer with a smile, and sometimes even hand you a small handful. ## Why Do People Make Gardens Along the Roadside? Many elderly people grew up in the countryside and came to the city to find work. Even though their bodies live in the city, their hands still remember the soil. The Korean dining table plays a part too. Meals where you wrap meat in lettuce and dip chili peppers in doenjang always call for fresh leafy greens. You can buy it at the supermarket, but people say freshly picked lettuce tastes different. People who live in apartments have no land of their own, so any empty plot they spot tends to turn into a vegetable patch. ## If you want to try it too If you'd like to grow vegetables yourself, there are "weekend farms." You rent a small plot near the city for a year and tend it every weekend. There are also urban community gardens run by district or city offices. Recruitment periods and costs change every year, so check your local district office's website or call them. If Korean is difficult for you, another option is to make the inquiry together with a Korean friend. A vegetable patch by the roadside is a small piece of someone's hometown that has been kept alive. Seen that way, your walk around the neighborhood will look a little different.