Green Food Healing Academy

Farmers' markets can do more!Creating a green healing space where the general public and cancer patients learn and eat together

(May 28, 2018, Taipei news)

 Creating a friendly, supportive and diverse community healing space

As society places ever greater importance on food safety and green dietary lifestyles, whether it is cooking for oneself, buying safe, good ingredients from trustworthy small farmers, or choosing environmentally friendly everyday products... there are many ways to put the concept of green sustainability into practice in daily life, and they deserve the public's deeper understanding. Yet at the same time, the international community is also discussing ever more widely the dignity and well-being of many patients. When someone in the family falls ill, it is no longer merely a matter for the patient, the hospital and the family. Do we have the opportunity, by connecting local communities and integrating social resources, to jointly create a friendly, supportive and diverse living space?

Last Saturday (5/26), "Water Garden Organic Farmers' Market" and "One Room Two Cares_Public Welfare Marketing Platform" joined hands to hold the "Green Food Healing Academy", co-organized by the "Hope Foundation for Cancer Care" and the "Breast Cancer Prevention Foundation", inviting patients and the general public to learn about healthy dietary lifestyles together. The course ran for a full month with 4 sessions in total, and registration was full within less than a week, clearly showing that cancer patients greatly need such a friendly, supportive community healing space. Last Saturday's first class also successfully created a setting where the general public and cancer patients could learn together. Under the teacher's guidance, they used fresh local organic ingredients to cook healthy and delicious vegetable dishes, and while enjoying the fun of cooking, they also cultivated their own "food healing power".

Through this kind of co-learning, co-eating and co-sharing activity, through mutual understanding and the sharing of life experience, everyone has the chance to start putting a green dietary lifestyle into practice together and learn together to cook healthy, tasty dishes. Not only do they get to know a group of like-minded companions, but through dialogue they enrich each other's life experience, and may further extend the influence of the green food community, encouraging Taiwan to develop a healthier and friendlier dietary environment.

Shopping at the market and cooking for yourself - a small everyday revolution

In particular, the fast pace of modern life often keeps people away from the kitchen, and the relationship between concerns about additives in eating out and the mechanisms of disease is an issue many people care about. However, our lack of understanding of ingredients, places of origin and the environment also creates in us a sense of disconnection from ourselves and from the world we live in. Because of this estrangement, the influence each of us has through our participation is often overlooked, overlooking how our consumption affects the way farmers grow crops, affects mountains, rivers, and the living creatures on the land... We also want to call on everyone: by buying your own groceries and cooking for yourself, we can restore this relationship and, in this deeply interwoven network, rediscover the meaning of taking part in it.

Water Garden is the largest organic farmers' market in Taipei. Over six years, it has helped more than 100 farmers and 60 agricultural processors meet city residents, gathering nearly 40 organic and friendly farms from all over Taiwan every Saturday, coming to Water Garden from every corner of the island.Every stall is an extension of a farm，The farmers' market represents the junction of city and countryside — a base for food education,Here, city residents can enjoy a leisurely weekend time and experience an enlightening feast of food and farming at Water Garden, chatting in person with farmers about the ins and outs of farm life, and understanding that behind agricultural production is one story after another about land, ecology and people; in addition, as the seasons change, in step with festivals, or featuring the market's new resident friends, Water Garden also often holds vegetable cooking classes using seasonal small-farmer produce, Dragon Boat Festival zongzi-wrapping experiences, Southeast Asian-style cooking... and morea variety of diverse cooking experience classes, inviting parents and children to rediscover together, through the DIY process, the close connection between food and life.

"Green Food Healing Academy" series of DIY cooking experience classes

 "Water Garden Organic Farmers' Market" has partnered with "One Room Two Cares_Public Welfare Marketing Platform" to offer a total of 4 classes from May to June, inviting cancer patients and the general public to learn together. Three dedicated cooking teachers and a farmer teach in person, covering homemade natural seasonings, noodles and fermented foods, and pairing with the festival's Dragon Boat zongzi-wrapping activity, teaching everyone how to use Taiwan's local fresh organic ingredients to create a new look for food and cultivate their own "food healing power". (Registration for cancer patients is full; places are still available for the general public, please contact 02-25922017*9)

 

[Course Content】

1. Green Food Healing Academy

Did you know that every ingredient has different properties, and that different constitutions should be matched with different ways of eating? In fact, the way of nourishing life through raw and living foods has a history of more than a thousand years. However, in modern society, we sometimes buy commercially available foods for convenience, and swallow along with them the pesticides and chemical additives mixed in, burdening the body and further harming health. Therefore, "how to return to a natural diet, eating the right food at the right time..." and cultivating one's own "food healing power" are things worth exploring and continually refining together for every one of us.

One Room Two Cares Public Welfare Platform has partnered with Water Garden Organic Farmers' Market to plan a series of classes. From May to June, a total of 4 classes will be taught in person by different dedicated cooking teachers and farmers. By incorporating local small farmers' organic produce, they will create a new look for food, including homemade natural seasonings, handmade noodles and more, and pairing with special festival activities, inviting students to come together to understand the rich world and charm of organic eating, and further enjoy a healthier, happier and more fulfilling life.

2. Instructor Introductions

Feng Pei-ge│Graduated from the master's program of the Department of Food Science at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, serves as an instructor at vegetable cooking workshops, and has been invited to demonstrate culinary skills on television. Skilled at transforming rich natural ingredients into delicious, guilt-free healthy vegetable dishes on the table!

Chen Yu-lan│Once founded a halal beef noodle shop, later became a vegetarian, has more than thirty years of experience hand-rolling noodles, and is skilled at using all kinds of seasonal fruits and vegetables to make various specialty noodles.

Li Qing-hao︱A small farmer at Water Garden Organic Farmers' Market. Four Seasons Cultivation Farm is located in Shoufeng Township, Hualien County, and farms using the Shu Ming natural farming method, with rice as the main crop. Besides rice, it also makes many rice products following traditional methods; and while trying not to destroy rice's nutritional value as much as possible, it has developed many rice-based snacks, hoping to gradually restore the cultural tradition of rice as a staple food.

3. Venue Introduction

Water Garden Organic Farmers § Lifestyle Creative Market

Opening hours︱Every Saturday 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Location︱Taipei Water Park Water Mist Garden (No. 1, Siyuan Street, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, 3-minute walk from MRT Gongguan Station Exit 4)

4. Course Outline

Time	Course Name	Activity Introduction	Instructor
May 26 10:30-12:00	Kung Fu Noodle Hall / 'Hand-rolled Organic Carrot Noodles' Teaching	This time we're using 'organic carrots', full of nutrition and rich in natural sweetness, to make noodles! You can see there are no additives at all, only the simple ingredients of "organic flour", "water" and "carrots". Teacher Yu-lan will teach the perfect ratio of flour to water, how to ferment; how to use just a pair of hands to knead dough, roll noodles and complete healthy, delicious noodles at home, and other handmade skills! ※ There will be cold noodles to taste on site!	Chen Yu-lan
June 2 10:30-12:00	Seasoning Magic Kitchen / Salt Koji Making & Cooking Teaching	Salt koji, passed down in Japan for a hundred years, is a natural seasoning that is both delicious and healthy! It can directly replace salt and MSG, enhancing food's original freshness and sweetness, and also has the effect of natural preservation and softening and tenderizing ingredients. Learn the one move of making salt koji, and whether you are a cooking expert or not good at cooking, you can easily cook up good flavors! ※ There will be salt koji dishes to taste on site!	Feng Pei-ge
June 9 10:30-12:00	Classic Taiwanese Food Teaching / Celebrating Dragon Boat Festival, handmade "zongzi" summer goodness!	A Taiwanese proverb says: "Before eating the fifth-month festival zongzi, one is unwilling to put away the torn fur coat." Qing-hao of Four Seasons Cultivation teaches everyone how to combine the methods of southern and northern zongzi, so the zongzi texture is just right, neither too dry nor too oily nor too sticky! Start making your own "Dragon Boat zongzi" that is perfect in color, aroma and taste. Adults and children alike are welcome to come play and wrap zongzi, learning happily through food!	Li Qing-hao
June 16 10:30-12:00	Charming Fermented Foods / Tempeh Cooking Canteen	Indonesia's national treasure food - 'tempeh' - is a very popular fermented soybean ingredient in Southeast Asia, and the best protein source for vegetarians to replace meat (about 20 grams of protein per 100 grams). In addition, the fermentation process also makes tempeh easier to digest than other soybean products, and less likely to cause bloating. Teacher Pei-ge will use simple, easy-to-master cooking techniques to introduce everyone to organic tempeh, teaching how to turn tempeh into delicious appetizers and main dishes, and how to use it in diverse ways, so that when you cook it at home for picky family members, it can also win praise~ ※ There will be tempeh dishes to taste on site!	Feng Pei-ge

 

Activity reminders:
※ Due to uncertain factors such as agricultural produce or climate, we reserve the right to change the agreement or the activity.
※ Because it is hard work for the teacher to prepare ingredients, after registering please be sure to honor your commitment and take part in the activity. If you really, really have something come up at the last minute, please be sure to let us know the day before. Otherwise the teacher will be very sad and we will be very troubled too. Thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation!

※ Registration for cancer patients is full; places are still available for the general public, 300 yuan per single class, please contact 02-25922017*9

Highlights Review│Green Food Healing Academy / Hand-rolled Carrot Kung Fu Noodles

https://www.facebook.com/organicfarmersmarket/posts/1637995869652983

[About Water Garden Organic Farmers' Market]

This is the story of a group of farmers who are changing Taiwan through organic farming that is friendly to the earth. And the end of the NTU Organic Farmers' Market is the beginning of this story. When the only organic farmers' market in Taipei closed, it meant that a community connecting land, ecology, farmers and the dining table was brewing a deeper force to gather together, establishing a sustainable living cooperative community market that practices friendliness to the earth and respect for life, in the Water Mist Garden of the Museum of Drinking Water in the NTU Gongguan shopping district, every Saturday from 10:00-17:00.

In addition, Water Garden also serves as an important channel for food and farming education and for voicing environmental issues. In the past it often co-held food safety, food and farming advocacy activities with green organizations and environmental groups, gathering the energy of these issues. For example, over the years it has jointly launched anti-GMO advocacy activities with the Homemakers United Foundation, in 2016 it connected the rice food culture circle to jointly launch the "Friendly Rice Food Culture Innovation Movement", and in 2018 it even served as the organizer of the 10th National Agricultural Market Symposium and the National Seed Exchange, while also starting a green dining guide project and holding the "Failure Reception Room" lecture series, comprehensively promoting the green food movement.
Water Garden Organic Farmers' Market / Lifestyle Creative Market

Every Saturday 10:00-17:00 Taipei Water Park Water Mist Garden (MRT Gongguan Station Exit 4)

[Water Garden Official Website]LifeNEXT Water Garden Market http://lifenextmarket.com/

[Water Garden FB]Water Garden Organic Farmers’ Market – Home https://www.facebook.com/organicfarmersmarket/

 

 

[About One Room Two Cares Public Welfare Marketing Platform]

"One Room Two Cares Public Welfare Marketing Platform" is a communicator of public welfare actions and a platform connecting nonprofit organizations, enterprises and the general public. With the mission goal of "warm co-learning, caring and sharing", it continuously plans parent-child and difference co-learning courses, so that ordinary school-age children can learn to understand and respect differences through interacting with residents of social welfare organizations, and so that residents of social welfare organizations can gain happiness and companionship from it, demonstrating the concept of shared good. For more information about "One Room Two Cares", please refer to https://www.careboth.com/ or http://careboth98.pixnet.net/blog

Press contact:

Taipei Cultural Exploration Association, Secretary-General Huang Jun-cheng0920-225-101

Association hotline：(02)2592-2017