Yilan Nan'ao Journal: The Joy of Being with Nature

It has been almost two months since the bitter tea tree saplings were planted in March. Every month we arrange two to three routine visits to the contract farm. There are several things we always do at the contract farm: connect with the farmers and show concern for their lives and the recent situation in the community, and of course we also have to visit the farmland on foot to understand how the bitter tea tree saplings are growing.

As soon as we arrive in the area, we always first go to the local spiritual center, the "Chaoyang Tianhou Temple," to sincerely pray to Mazu and draw a sacred lot as a blessing. Two lines from the lot poem we drew this time, "If you meet a bright moon shining, on the fifteenth the full round light fills the sky," mean that if one can encounter the illumination of the bright moon and be as complete as the moon on the fifteenth, everything will be complete and smooth. This also reminds us from time to time to treat the land, the crops, and the people well, and one day we will have complete fruits.

This time there were two very important tasks. To observe the growth of the saplings, we took a look in the field and saw that the young seedlings had just been planted

not long ago, and the weeds on the land had already grown up again. This also represents the vigorous vitality of this piece of land, but fortunately weed-suppression mats had been laid around the saplings from the very beginning; otherwise the small bitter tea tree saplings would soon be covered by weeds, and both nutrients and sunlight would be taken away. The second important task was to collect soil samples and send them to the agricultural research institute for testing, so as to plan the most optimized measures for soil fertility.

When passing by the rice fields, we saw a large flock of egrets standing in the paddy field resting, and once disturbed they all flew up together. The rich ecological scene also hinted that the season for harvesting the first rice crop was approaching, and it should be a time of harvest. Accompanied by nature and sitting amid a stretch of emerald green, this is the joy that only farming brings!