Wild Vegetable Class Begins: The Principal and a Plant Doctor Take You to Explore the World of Ecological Wild Vegetables

"I've always been very interested in nature. I think this could become a trend in the future, so I came to learn about it first," said Ms. Tan from Taichung.

"I was originally taking a course on herb plants. I came today to learn more, and I think it will really open my eyes," said Ms. Wu, full of anticipation.

"This is how people ate in the old days. I came specially today to relive the taste," said Mrs. Yang from Taipei, brimming with enthusiasm.

What exactly is this course that brings together three generations, old, middle-aged and young, at this school in Sanxing, Yilan, which has no classrooms, only farmland? What is it that everyone has come to learn about and relive?

The Invincible Principal Founds the Wild Vegetable School: "Wild vegetables are a door that brings people closer to ecology"

"Wild vegetables!" announced Chen Mucheng, founder of the Wild Vegetable School. He said, "Everyone of our generation has their own wild vegetable story."

Chen Mucheng's nickname is "Invincible Principal" (a play on the sound of his English name, Woody). He made a name for himself during his years as a principal: at Fulian Elementary School in Fulong he pioneered a "diving graduation ceremony"; at Jian'an Elementary School in Sanxia he restored ten thousand fireflies to flutter across the campus; he was the driving force behind the private Kang Chiao International School, and he also promoted two publicly funded, privately run experimental schools: Ci-Xin Waldorf Experimental School and Yilan Humanities Primary and Secondary School. His educational achievements could be described as filling cartloads and bushels.

After retiring, he wanted to promote ecological work. "There are many different doors into ecology, and I think wild vegetables are a pretty good one." With these two simple sentences, he explained his original intention in founding the Wild Vegetable School.

Dr. Huang Chaoqing of the Endemic Species Research Center, "principal and bell-ringer in one"

Although Chen Mucheng was born into a farming family, he stayed in Taipei after attending teachers college, and his farming skills had grown rusty. The school's first principal, Chen Qingzhi, was a good friend he had known since teachers college. Although the two had a friendship of nearly half a century, Principal A-Zhi was still feeling his way through farming methods. It was not until Huang Chaoqing took over as principal that the Wild Vegetable School slowly grew into what it should be.

Holding a doctorate in botany, Huang Chaoqing retired last year from the Endemic Species Research Center of the Council of Agriculture and joined the Wild Vegetable School this March. When he was little, his mother carried him on her back while planting rice, and as he grew up he went with his grandfather to plant fruit on the hills. Huang Chaoqing had held a hoe and stood in the mud since childhood, and his later career was also related to plants, so "growing vegetables" was never something he had grown rusty at.

Huang Chaoqing said, "I used to study a lot of wild plants, and I never thought about how to eat them, nor did I have to worry about pests and diseases, but now I have to shoulder all of that myself." At the Wild Vegetable School he is not only "principal and bell-ringer in one," but also a volunteer principal, receiving no salary at all.

Look, rub, touch, smell, taste: using the five senses to learn about wild vegetables

"Ding ding ding!" The class bell rings, and the Wild Vegetable School is in session!

Today's first class was supposed to be a "treasure hunt." After splitting into groups, the students took eight plant picture cards out into the fields and, following the plant features on the cards, found the corresponding plants. At the same time they drew two kinds of edible parts: leaves, fruit, flowers and so on, and also had to judge which plants were toxic.

Unfortunately, such a lively and interesting class was foiled by heavy rain, and the students could only rely on Principal Huang Chaoqing to pick more than a dozen kinds of wild vegetables on the spot and explain them directly. Huang Chaoqing first brought out a white roselle, to everyone's amazement. It turned out that people usually only see red roselle because the white flowers do not taste as good as the red ones, so few people grow them. But "just because a variety is unpopular does not mean it has no value." The very first class at the Wild Vegetable School prompted a great deal of reflection.

Next, Huang Chaoqing brought out shell ginger capsules that had already burst open. Neither flower nor fruit, with their strange appearance, they really are rather unappealing. He said shell ginger fruit has many medicinal effects, shell ginger leaves can be used to wrap rice dumplings, the tender stems can be boiled and eaten, the flowers can be made into cakes, and the fiber from the stalks can be woven into rope or straw mats, making it a plant whose every part is a treasure.

Huang Chaoqing went on to introduce different wild vegetables, asking everyone to touch them, rub them and smell them. The aroma of prickly ash stung the nose, Chinese mahogany smelled of gas, and the most surprising was pandan, with its rich taro fragrance; marigold was just like having emerged from a passion fruit thicket, carrying a sweet-and-sour scent that was utterly charming.

Finally, Huang Chaoqing also introduced a dish of Bischofia chicken. It turns out the Bischofia tree, common in Taiwan, can also be used in cooking. "Lay three layers of old Bischofia leaves on the bottom of the pot, then chop the tender leaves and add garlic, salt, wine and other seasonings, stuff it all into the belly of an old hen, and finally cover the hen with another layer of old Bischofia leaves. After sealing the gaps around the lid with a wet towel, simmer over low heat for two to four hours (depending on the size of the chicken), and you have a very flavorful Bischofia chicken."

Make your own lunch: novel ingredients come to the table one by one

Huang Chaoqing's mouth-watering talk left everyone ravenous, so they immediately split into groups and got to work, cooking up fascinating wild vegetable flavors.

The dishes that day were truly abundant: seven dishes, one soup and one dessert. This group was in charge of stir-frying Madeira vine and celosia; that group's deep-fried pumpkin slices would be stir-fried with salted egg; the prickly ash baked omelette had to get to the table quickly; and the group members behind were still waiting for the pot to stir-fry shredded pork with wild ginger flowers. The most interesting was the innovative dish of bulbils pizza. Bulbils are the aerial tubers of Madeira vine, with a texture somewhere between potato and water caltrop; spread on the crust, they gave the pizza an extra crisp texture. According to an "unscientific poll," bulbils were voted the finest wild vegetable of the day.

In addition, the Wild Vegetable School also prepared pig's trotters stewed with water hyssop, as well as warm pumpkin glutinous rice ball sweet soup and pumpkin