It is our honour that we are celebrating Christmas together.

In this season of love and sharing, Urban Diary will be hosting a gingerbread workshop so you can learn how to make the classic Christmas treat for your friends and family.

At the workshop, we will be using organic ginger sourced from local farms, and we also have a modified recipe to cater to the local preference for crispy biscuits. Through the event, which is made possible thanks to the assistance of Green Shop and the Hong Kong House of Stories, we want to celebrate the fruits of hardworking farmers who have succeeded in growing quality food despite all the constraints of this city because they are passionate about protecting nature and bringing healthy food to more people in Hong Kong. Therefore, in this edition of Urban Diary, we feature two personalities who are key to the gingerbread workshop: Dora and Ah To.

Dora Cheng Shuke-ching is a social worker. Augustine To Yat-man is an organic farmer. Dora would never say this, but in my eyes, she is the mother of Green Shop. Those who have read our October edition and watched the “Grown in Hong Kong” video should be familiar with the shop. For new readers, the low-key green force is doing an important job by bridging local organic farmers with consumers out of a little space down a garage-filled backstreet in Wan Chai. Ah To is a major supplier to the shop, and he grows ginger especially for them.

As I was writing the stories about Dora and Ah To, I was also writing two stories about trust, specifically trust between strangers. This trust would not be possible if Hong Kong doesn’t have individuals who practise sustainability, and if there isn’t rural land that allows domestic farming to continue for the good of our people.