Hsitiyao: A Group Portrait

Chen Tai-lung: Wielder of Hoe and Pen

Amongst the several hundred thousand farmers in Taiwan, you could say that Chen Tai-lung is the one of very few who not only works hard in the fields, but also uses a camera and computer to keep a daily record of his work.

While Chen finds taking photos and keeping a log rather tiring, since his wife and kids are in Nantou, he finds time to get it all done, and after a year and a half he is used to it.

"Naturally, there are many rewards!" he says. From the time he knew that other farmers might be browsing through his records at any time, he realized that he had taken on a major responsibility which he needed to take seriously. Thus he reads a lot and seeks out information, and hopes that later on his documentation can be turned into a textbook.

Chen has bushy eyebrows, large eyes, and well-defined features, and was Liao Hsueh-tang's high school classmate. He previously ran a restaurant in Nantou, but since business wasn't very good he turned to farming. After helping a friend grow pears in Lishan, he was invited by Liao to manage the orange grove. Later on, due to Liao's poor health, he also took over responsibility for the pineapple fields.

Chen says that he and Feng Hsiao-fei "usually don't see eye to eye." Feng always wants to experiment with new ways of doing things, but farmers have to be more concerned with down-to-earth, practical considerations of manpower, time and capital, so disagreements are inevitable.

For example, in order to improve the disease resistance and appearance of the oranges, Feng favored using a Bordeaux mixture developed by the Agricultural Research Institute in Wufeng, Taichung County. This method requires spraying both before and after the rainy season, a total of four times. Chen, however, advocated using phosphoric acid and potassium hydroxide, which only needs to be sprayed twice. Though they still have their differences, at least they now agree on one thing: the best way to deal with these kinds of differences of opinion is to spend more time talking them over.

Former restaurateur Chen Tai-lung oversees Hsitiyao's orange grove and pineapple field. A convincing proponent of organic farming, he has been instrumental in making Hsitiyao's website a goldmine of photos and information.

Tsai Tsung-hsiu: Lord of the Longan

At 44 years of age, Tsai Tsung-hsiu, Liao Hsueh-tang's classmate in elementary school, is the youngest farmer of Pahsien Village. He worked for over ten years as a painter in Nantou, but after his parents-in-law died in the 1999 earthquake he returned to Chungliao to take over the management of their fields, as well as those of his father. He now looks after a 0.6-hectare grove of longan trees, three hectares of betel nut trees, and a 0.4-hectare plot of oranges and bananas.

The trees in Tsai's longan orchard are the height of a two or three storey building. Scattered around a rolling hillside, they are just now in full bloom. The orchard is simple and tranquil, as are Tsai himself and a good deal of the more traditional farmers of Chungliao.

Tsai says that longan trees are hardy by nature and grow well without the use of insecticides. The only problem is that there is a certain moth which lays its eggs on the fruit after the flowers have withered. When the larvae hatch out they bore their way into the fruit to feed, which results in fruit drop and a reduction in the harvest.

The conventional way of dealing with this problem is to spray the trees with pesticides once in April when the fruits are small, and twice more before harvesting. During last year's experiment, seven longan trees were given organic fertilizer and weren't sprayed with any pesticides. The fruits were very aromatic and sweet, but the harvest was reduced by a third. The other 120-some longan trees were only sprayed once. The agricultural chemicals and toxins department of the Agricultural Research Institute at Wufeng examined the fruits and didn't find any pesticide residue.

Tsai's entire harvest is used to make dried longan by the traditional charcoal method of drying, which uses a brick-built kiln to continuously heat them for three days. Hsitiyao packs them in simple and attractive containers with the name "Old Friend Dried Longan." A portion of the dried longan is also used to make the widely acclaimed longan ginger soup.

Feng Hsiao-fei hopes that this year Tsai will take a step further and go completely pesticide free, but the question of how to best prevent insect damage is still under discussion. Naturally, Tsai is concerned about the risks involved, but he remains willing to keep trying. "Conventional agriculture is already on its last legs; innovation is the key to the future!"

Kuan Hsin-i, nicknamed "Sparky," deftly packing boxes. Ever since she has been in charge of sales, the administrative side of the Hsitiyao Educational Farm has been functioning smoothly.

Kuan Hsin-i: a.k.a. "Sparky"

The end of December to the beginning of March--a time when most people are enjoy-ing all the lunar new year celebrations--happens to be the busiest time of the year at Hsitiyao. Between the non-stop telephone calls and struggling to get all the orders out, Kuan Hsin-i sometimes doesn't even have time to go to the toilet! Yet, she finds that her pace of life has finally become synchronized with the harvest. Life in the countryside is simple, her companions are affable, the work is not overly structured, and there is lots of space for developing one's skills and ideas. In short, she is very happy working here.

After graduating from the Sociology Department of Tunghai University, Kuan began to work at Feng Hsiao-fei's Taichung studio, where she was responsible for editing the website "Small Places: The Taiwan Community News Network." Following in Feng's footstep, two years ago she moved to Chungliao and began to help out at Hsitiyao on a volunteer basis. Once the business was well established, she was offered a full-time position.

Although shy by nature, at Hsitiyao Kuan has to spend lots of time answering phone calls and replying to customers. Amidst all the hustle and bustle, however, she has found an unexpected source of encouragement. "Realizing that you have so many truly big-hearted customers supporting your work in so many ways is really encouraging."

In her time off, Sparky often goes out to inspect the fields. In the exquisite photo album on Hsitiyao's website, sedentary city-dwellers can feast their eyes on her photos of some of the many creatures which thrive in the pesticide-free fields: the neatly-arranged eggs of a stinkbug, a stinkbug drinking orange juice, ants on leaves carrying aphids, the beautiful larvae of a swallowtail butterfly, long-horned beetle larvae molting on a tree trunk, a sinister-looking long-horned beetle, and newly hatched birds in their nest waiting to be fed.

Peng Mei-han: Bringing Up the Rear

The Community Learning Center opened on April 15, marking the beginning of a new chapter for Hsitiyao. Feng says that all of Hsitiyao's profits have been spent on the community education garden plot. They rented a traditional farmhouse, put in a wooden floor and bookcases, and planted a garden on the periphery of the courtyard. The classes are divided into two sections: one for children and one for farmers. Their first project is to provide supplementary education for local elementary-school students who are falling behind in their studies, in the hope that some lively instruction can rekindle their interest in learning.

Peng Mei-han, a graduate student in Chung Hsing University's Department of Agricultural Extension, is in charge of the educational program. A young man with a keen interest in children, Peng comes to Hsitiyao three days a week to teach the children. He also joins the farmers for the organic agriculture classes.

Peng says he hopes that by using the garden and nature as a classroom he can help the children to learn by doing, cultivate their sense of beauty, and improve their self-confidence.

During several classes in April, Peng used the task of setting up beanpoles in the garden as a math lesson. After demonstrating how to put up a framework of beanpoles, he has the children walk the perimeter of the garden one time and use the number of steps to calculate the length. Afterwards, they go back to the classroom and discuss how many sections the garden should be divided into and calculate the number of poles they will need. "Calculating the number of sections includes division, and setting up two rows of beanpoles is a simple multiplication exercise."

"I've discovered that the most important factor in learning is daring to think for oneself, and then trying out one's ideas without being scared of making mistakes," wrote Peng, sharing on the website what he has learned about education.

During composition class, Peng, who is also a lifeguard, takes the seven children to the river to play in the water and guddle fish. "In a safe environment, I let them slip and fall, and experience various setbacks. Then I teach them how to help and encourage each other." Back in the classroom, he has the students write a sentence or a paragraph on the whiteboard describing their experience at the river.

Peng's current plan is to have the children plant sunflowers so that they can inspect the flowers as they grow and make notes on how many centimeters they grow each day. "This way they not only learn about calculating length, but also about time concepts such as days and months."