Soil and Water, Good Harvest Rice: A Thousand People Come to Roast Kilns in Xinpu Township, Hsinchu County

The Jupu Community of Xinpu Township, Hsinchu County has scheduled to hold the "Soil and Water, Good Harvest Rice - Sweet Potato Industry and Rice Straw Culture Event" on December 2 at the farmland beside the Jupu section of Xinlong Road, inviting all members of the public interested in rural life to come and join in, playing together across the vast rice fields, getting close to and enjoying the fun brought by the earth.

In Taiwan's early agricultural society, during the fallow period of farming, adults would take children to the fields, pile up an earthen kiln, burn the clods of earth red and put in some whole chickens, fresh fish, or root vegetables such as sweet potatoes, to cook that day's leisurely farm snack or dinner staple. This is a type of cookout without utensils that is popular in Taiwan - kiln roasting. In today's industrial and commercial society, where people rarely farm, it has evolved into a leisure parent-child outdoor activity in which adults take children to relive childhood fun. The Jupu Community will carry on the rural festive spirit through the kiln-roasting experience, combine it with the straw weaving that the community takes pride in, continue to hold experiential activities featuring rural industry characteristics, promote locally produced sweet potatoes and rice through on-location experiential activities, and bring visiting tourists an experience and understanding of a whole series of rural life and fun, so they can come to know the industrial culture of Jupu's countryside and the beauty of its scenery.

The Jupu Community Development Association stated that when it first held the community rural regeneration industry event - "Soil and Water Hug" - at the end of last year, it was already loved by a great many visitors. This year, continuing the theme of the event, registration was opened for 100 kiln-roasting groups, and it was fully booked in less than a month. This year it is conservatively estimated that over a thousand visitors will come to take part together in this experiential activity, to search together for the fun among the farm fields, to relive the happiest times of the elders in the countryside, and to promote the community's locally produced sweet potatoes of excellent quality and various other agricultural products, so that visitors can buy with peace of mind and eat with confidence.