cazi taiwan trek

Yam has been a special food in Taiwanese history, not only does the shape of a yam resemble Taiwan, but historically, yam was one of the main food sources of early Taiwan. There are various places in different areas of Taiwan that grow organic yam. I specifically chose this one because of its location: Taipei, an organic farm in the outskirts of the busy city and because of the farmer, who is an artist who advocates for protection of the earth and who insists on using the most natural resources (no pesticides or chemicals) to grow his yam.

Rice paddies. Formerly a white-collar salary worker, the farmer decided to migrate to the country and respond to his desire to do something new: grow produce and sell his own rice. While there are numerous paddy fields in rural areas of Taiwan, this farmer's insistence on naturally cultivating his paddy fields using purely sun and water sets him apart from many others. Each grain of rice represents each drop of the farmer's sweat, and this embodies the farmer's impulse.

My Vietnamese friend only knows Taiwan only through 1) drama and 2) pineapple cake (鳳梨酥). Pineapple cake seems to be one of Taiwanese's most touristic food souvenir, driving my choice of the pineapple. A pineapple farmer from Taidong claims "the more you understand the way agriculture works, the more subordinate and humble you feel toward nature, because everything produced by nature is a gift and a miracle". How do they plant, grow, nurture, protect and harvest the fruit? How can one get accustomed to the scars that they get when handling such prickly fruit? These are the questions that I inquire.

This farm advocates an environmentally friendly agriculture method. Due to Taiwan's humid climate, the number of bugs and insects are relatively high and hence agriculture becomes very difficult without the use of chemicals and pesticides. This farmer suggests that there are some other ways to reduce the use of pesticides and create a more environmentally friendly farm that not only benefits those who ingest the fruit, but also the land and farmers themselves. This farm specially sells cold hardy mandarin, one of my favourite fruits of Taiwan. The farmer's son went back to his old home and decided to use his knowledge in university to help sell the fruit directly, bypassing the involvement of the retail supply chain which consumes a significant proportion of sales revenue. Nevertheless, the farm produces many other goods made out of their mandarins, such as jam and bread.