Family story: Pick 20 cucumbers and 15 tomatoes for Chairman Mao

Taking the initiative to build a cooperative

In 1950, the land reform in Haidian District had almost been completed. The government launched a campaign called “Become Rich together”, calling on farmers to organize cooperatives to share production materials so they could develop together. The priority of agricultural development was greenhouse vegetables, a resource urgently needed by residents.

In 1951, Li Molin, together with six farming families, established a cooperative in Yangfangdian. In 1952, the cooperative got a name – the “Li Molin Greenhouse Cooperative.” This was the first high-class agricultural cooperative established in Haidian District.

Li Molin once said that all seven families were poor, the poorest of whom was the family of Li Wencheng. This five-member family was crowded into a small house, and people nicknamed him “One Building”. Seven families were recruited to the cooperative in different ways; some drove a donkey and some brought tools.

Li Molin invested the most in the cooperative. Li Dexi recalled that his family offered three cooking stoves and over ten greenhouses. Cooking stoves were used to warm greenhouses, and there were only five stoves and 21 greenhouses during the early stage.

The second child was born in a greenhouse

In addition to technology, another difficulty for greenhouse planting was money. Most people simply did not have the economic power to invest in a greenhouse. The ability to weather risk was also poor. They would lose everything because of a strong wind or a heavy rain. In 1952, the government provided the first loan of 10 million yuan and a second of 30 million yuan (old currency).

In 1953, the cooperative was moved to the Beigaozhuang Village, Dongrancun Town (now called Sijiqing) because the land was expropriated by the government. In 1954, Li Molin’s second child was born in a cottage in a greenhouse.

As a child, Li Dexi only needed to open the door to see the unending greenhouse. There were two rows of houses in the middle, a total of 24, which were occupied by seven households, with three belonging to them. The cooperative’s office was in their home.

At that time, not all the greenhouses were made of glass. Many of them were made of onionskin papers. One side was against a mountain slope, and tilted to one side. The light was dim in the greenhouse. They had to burn coal for heat in winter. The children still remember that their parents worked during the day and sent vegetables to Dongan, Guang’anmen and other markets at night.

As he was very busy, Li Molin’s five children grew up with little supervision. Li Dexi loved to walk under the Chinese toon trees as a small child. He said that because they were illiterate, their parents heavily depended on experience and experimentation to grow vegetables. They worked in the cooperative day and night. The children became very interested in farm work and Li Dexi began to help his grandmother to carry water and cook meals at five or six years old.