Rice you grow yourself, from field to table with greater peace of mind
I am a kid who grew up in Taipei, yet I always felt I did not belong there. In my junior year of college this year, I took a leave of absence. Driven by an unstoppable longing to find the rhythm of life, and by the desire to explore another way of living under capitalism and to practice the value of life, I chose farming as a way to open up a dialogue.
I grow rice in Shengou Village, Yuanshan Township, Yilan. The rice I grow is Taichung Sen 10 (Taichung Indica No. 10). I apply no pesticides and no herbicides. The fertilizer is a microbial culture I make myself from bacteria I gather in the mountains. I hand-pick apple snails and sun-dry the grain. The field is quite close to where I live, and it is an independent, complete plot of land.
At first I wanted to follow Yilan Xiaotiantian to learn the knowledge of rice growing, so that it could serve as a channel to becoming a professional farmer. However, persuaded by other small farmers, and driven by the desire to practice control over my own life, I took on nearly 3 fen 8 li of paddy field, relying on youth being capital. Then I began facing the challenge of selling rice. Following the example of Brother Qingsong and Yilan Xiaotiantian, I adopted the grain subscription model, inviting consumers who are willing to support friendly farming, or friends who want to know what the life of a rice plant is really like, to buy rice from me and become grain shareholders.
I hope to promote friendly farming face to face with consumers and share the original intention of farming. I plan to name the rice I grow "My Own Rice," hoping to shorten the distance people feel toward buying goods under an over-inflated capitalism. I believe that rice growing carries a gentle, slow and murmuring force in a world of consumer supremacy.
It cannot be denied that there are still remnants of mainstream urban values and a tightly packed learning pace inside me, but I tell myself that agriculture is life, and time is the way life accumulates. I farm and live here. Every day I will write a little about the progress of the rice growing in the field, my thoughts from exchanges with other small farmers, and my observations of rural areas. If any friends want to visit the field, you are welcome to come anytime, or come help.
People are often surprised that I farm, feeling that it is truly not easy for someone so young to be willing to return to the countryside. For most people, young people farming seems to evoke a blood-like salty-sweet flavor, carrying a beautiful imagination of new life bursting out of an exhausted society and the pain that rises after self-reflection. It cannot be denied that taking a leave of absence to farm is indeed a means for me to resist the existing society and to try to walk another path. I want to prove that farming is also a work option for young people. And when you are willing to step out and plant your feet in one place, change will be branded out along with your footsteps.
Being a farmer is neither easy nor particularly comfortable, but when working in the field, my mindset is healthy and full of vitality, because I know that everything I do, whether patching the field ridges, pulling weeds, or picking apple snails, is all for growing delicious, healthy rice, while also maintaining the ecological environment. Every action develops toward a good intention. For young people, at least for me, it is truly very fulfilling.
Every time I pick up the hoe and bring it down from the sky into the soil, besides seeing sweat fall and the scalding sunlight stinging my neck, I do not know what else will happen. I only know that when I lift my head to look and ponder, the mountain peaks of the Lanyang Plain are on this side and that side, and the shape of the mountains ripples between the paddy field, the blue sky and the white egrets like the gently soothing melody of a lullaby. Without having to think anything, one can be overwhelmed by the rich, heart-breaking abundance of this moment.
I am always observing the society in front of me. Listening to the way I converse with society.
Very quickly I discovered that the knot of anxiety in my heart had loosened, because I am using my two feet and two hands to care for this land that nurtured me, and to stretch out again the root system that had broken from her.
Everyone is welcome to buy rice from me.
Grain subscription page:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1K7HqEOMLzhxf-QYeaYUhOnP83kzasMayCodbNG78Fgc/viewform