Start Here — New to KNF?
You can grow food using what nature already provides.
Most farming relies on purchased products — fertilizers, pesticides, biological inputs. Korean Natural Farming takes a different approach: instead of buying those things, you make them. From rice, fruit, fish scraps, leaves, and the microorganisms already living in your soil.
This practice was developed over decades by a Korean farmer and teacher named Master Cho Han-kyu. It has spread to over 100 countries. Farmers use it to grow rice, vegetables, fruit trees, livestock, and more — at lower cost, with healthier soil, and without chemical dependency.
That's it at the highest level. Here's how to go deeper.
Step 1 — Watch someone make it
The fastest way to understand Korean Natural Farming is to watch it happen. We have hundreds of hours of free video from weekly sessions where practitioners demonstrate techniques, answer questions, and troubleshoot real problems.
Step 2 — Come to a meeting
We hold free monthly gatherings in Hilo, Hawaiʻi where one of the nine core preparations is demonstrated hands-on. There's a potluck. You can taste what we're making. You can ask anything.
We also hold online meetings for Foundation members worldwide.
Step 3 — Make something
The nine preparations at the heart of this practice each have a job. One feeds plants. One cleans and balances. One activates immunity. One builds soil life from scratch. They are made from materials most people already have access to — or can find locally for free.
Fermented plant extract. Made from the growing tips of your strongest plants. Feeds crops with bioavailable nutrition from the same ecosystem they grow in.
Learn more →Living vinegar made from brown rice. Balances soil pH, inhibits pathogens, and opens plants up to absorb other preparations.
Learn more →Five-herb extract. Strengthens the plant's immune system and repels pests through aromatic compounds — not by killing anything.
Learn more →Calcium phosphate made by dissolving bones in vinegar. Builds cell walls, strengthens stems, improves root architecture.
Learn more →Water-soluble calcium made from eggshells. Applied during flowering to trigger fruiting and seed development.
Learn more →Diluted seawater. Provides 80+ trace minerals that land soils have lost. Plants know what to take and what to leave.
Learn more →Fish amino acids. Fermented from whole fish or scraps. A concentrated energy source that accelerates growth during key stages.
Learn more →Lactic acid bacteria cultured from rice wash. Outcompete pathogens in soil and on leaf surfaces. The foundation of healthy microbial community.
Learn more →Indigenous microorganisms collected from your own forest floor or mountain soil. The most important preparation. Nothing else works without this foundation.
Learn more →You don't need to make all nine at once. Most practitioners start with two or three and build from there.
Step 4 — Go deeper
When you're ready to document your practice and learn alongside other serious practitioners, the Foundation offers a certification program — Level 1 (knowledge exam) and Level 2 (evidence of making and applying each preparation).
Membership gives you access to community chat, research participation, the full video library, and the online monthly meetings.
Who is the Pure KNF Foundation?
We are a small nonprofit based in Papaikou, Hawaiʻi. We run education programs, support field research, and maintain the largest English-language archive of Korean Natural Farming knowledge. We've been doing this since 2019.
All programs are free or low-cost. Membership dues and grants keep the lights on.