In 1991 the Japanese shumei organization Shinji Shumeikai came to Taiwan to spread its teachings. Back then Chen Hui-wen, who spoke fluent Japanese, ran a boxed lunch store. When it was convenient, she would interpret for the shumei teachers, who couldn't speak a word of Chinese. Then in October of that year, she was invited to Shinji Shumeikai headquarters in Japan, where she trained as the organization's first Taiwanese volunteer teacher.

The following year she went to help out on Kishima Island, where farmers have comprehensively adopted natural farming principles. Although already possessing a discerning palate from her work in restaurants, she was simply blown away by the taste of tomatoes grown with natural farming methods. In 1993 Chen returned to Taiwan and along with some Shinji Shumeikai volunteers tried to grow some food using natural farming techniques. As a consequence, she met Li Hsu-ying, a Shinji Shumeikai volunteer from Japan whose family was ethnic Chinese. The two ended up becoming partners in life and work.

At first, they cultivated a plot no larger than a family vegetable garden as a hobby. Then, eight years ago, their eldest daughter came down with a serious case of atopic dermatitis, with painful red rashes. Li Hsu-ying, an eye doctor, read a Japanese medical report describing cases where symptoms had been alleviated through a diet of natural foods. And indeed after six months on a family diet of wholly natural foods, their daughter's skin condition was cured without the need for medicine, and Li's own asthma also improved. The results only increased the couple's confidence in natural farming.

In 2001 the Taipei County River Protection Association and the Tamsui Culture Foundation applied to the Council of Labor Affairs for a "sustainable employment infrastructure" grant. To help NGOs implement the part of the grant entitled "transformation of village farming toward natural farming," the Homemaker's Union and Foundation introduced them to Chen and Li. Although Chen and Li eventually ended up parting ways with the River Protection Association, which wanted to pursue organic faming, the organization did help them find 0.75 hectares of land at Tunshan in Taipei County's Tanshui, which became the Tatun River Natural Educational Farm.

In one shot, they went from a household garden to a full-fledged farm, and their planting and management methods had to be completely overhauled. What's more, the land lacked any kind of drip watering or irrigation system. Lugging the necessary water to the field would take half a day. It took six months of hard work to turn the situation for the better.

Li Hsu-ling came from Japan to study at Kaohsiung Medical University when he was 19. A great lover of music, he once performed with friends in the Red Ants Band. After leaving the entertainment world, the guitarist became an eye doctor, and then, as a result of his daughter's illness, a part-time farmer.

"Rather than working to make people truly healthy, conventional medicine treats symptoms. It's analogous to the use of antibiotics and pesticides in conventional farming." Li has taken up the Japanese call for "medicine to learn from farming, and farming to take its power from nature." Wanting to become an "agricultural doctor," he is learning from natural farming to gain a true understanding of preventive medicine.

Now he sees patients only twice a week. With the rest of their time, his wife and he, apart from doing farm work, also provide various kinds of experiential education programs and courses. These include "food and drink education," which focuses on homemakers; a "farmers' training squad," which gives youths real farming experience; and "becoming friends with nature," which takes young children into the fields to gain knowledge about plants, experience the hard labor of farm work, and cultivate a sense of gratitude toward farmers.

So the farm can stay afloat, they developed a membership program four years ago, allowing those with similar ideas about farming to join. Members pay a monthly NT$1,000 fee to help them with their rent and pay a share of the water and electricity costs. As long as the members are also willing to spend time helping out on the farm, they can take harvested vegetables home.

Last year, they drew from their own experiences to write Slow and Natural Life. They have also been hosting people from Chiayi, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Nantou, Taitung and elsewhere who want to learn about natural farming practices.

Gazing at the green planted rice in the distance, and hearing the laughter of children from the swing that they built, this farmer-doctor and his wife provide people with an alternative lifestyle: it turns out that life is full of possibility after all, and that you reap what you sow.

The cool, clear stream that flows through the farm not only helps irrigate the land, but also provides a fun place for Li Hsu-ying and his children to play.

Li Hsu-ying and Chen Hui-wen, who have four lovely children, do not miss the highly paid, highly stressed life of a conventional medical practice, but prefer to find the way to healthy living in the bosom of nature.

To maintain biodiversity, Chen Hui-wen has tried growing watermelons as well as rice.