Minxiong Xichang Land Chronicles Field Experience Event to Be Held on December 27

Savor the "Feast in the Rice Paddy" and experience the "Tales of the Rice Paddy"

Most people know the words "farmland", "soil" and "weeds", but they look at them in different ways and from different angles, and so they arrive at different answers. Especially for people who often live in cities, these are merely nouns, with no firsthand contact or experience. On December 26, 2015 (Republic of China year 104), Chiayi City's "Shuqucao Vegetarian Restaurant" and friendly-land smallholder "Jiabaomai Farm Studio" will hold the "Minxiong Xichang. Land Chronicles" event. They have also invited the "Hanjiyuan Natural Farm" and the "Weeds Slightly Slow" team, using land producers and wild foragers to gather, cook outdoors, build earth ovens and play together in fallow fields, embarking on a marvelous journey through the five senses of the body.

At the end of last year (2014), on friendly-farmed land in Xichang Village, Minxiong, Chiayi, four or five "Feast in the Rice Paddy" events were held, jointly organized by "Jiabaomai Farm Studio" and "Shuqucao Vegetarian Kitchen", letting participants visit the production site in person and, in a low-carbon, eco-friendly way, take part in wild vegetable gathering, earth-oven building and outdoor cooking. The events won the participants' recognition and also fulfilled Shuqucao and Jiabaomai's vision of using activities to link land, producers, consumers and corporate social responsibility.

"Jiabaomai" and "Hanjiyuan" practice friendly farming, growing rice, vegetables and fruit without using pesticides or chemical fertilizers, together with green manure crops and organic matter fertilizers. Although environmental and health awareness has risen in recent years, most people still do not understand friendly cultivation well enough, and because the organizers all have children at home, they hope to provide a pure stretch of land where children can explore the natural environment.

After nearly a year of reflection and discussion, "Jiabaomai" and "Shuqucao" came to feel that the life of the land could be explored further, and by happy coincidence they met the two young people of "Weeds Slightly Slow", who intend to put down roots in Chiayi (one of them is originally from Shuishang, Chiayi), gathering "weeds" to make tea and pickles. There was also the local partner "Hanjiyuan Natural Farm", which could not take part last year because a new baby had just been born. Through discussions among the four parties, the 2015 event, in addition to keeping the "Feast in the Rice Paddy" on the morning of the event day, centered on gathering, outdoor cooking and earth-oven building, also added the theme "Tales of the Rice Paddy", using the sharing of feelings about field soil, playing with it and creating from it, as well as weed identification and gathering, weed tea brewing and weed pickle making, so that participants could gain a deeper understanding of the importance of "land" to "life" in earlier times.

"Feast in the Rice Paddy"

"Gathering, outdoor cooking and earth-oven building" uses the newly harvested rice from Jiabaomai's first crop, along with locally, environmentally friendly ingredients; everyone works together, cooking over firewood in the fields and enjoying the meal between sky and earth;

"Tales of the Rice Paddy"

"The Life and Aesthetics of Field Soil": Do you know what soil is? How do you look at soil? Brother Along of "Hanjiyuan Natural Farm", with the skills of a craft artist in Jiaozhi pottery, ceramic tableware and clay modeling, and with the feelings of a producer who farms in a friendly way and embraces the land, will share with you the life and beauty of soil.

"Tales of Weeds" is led by the two-person team of "Weeds Slightly Slow", who will take you to taste hand-roasted "sun tea" and sun-brewed "weed tea", and to gather and make "weed pickles" full of the earth's life energy

Event Schedule

0830-0840 Meet and gather
0840-0900 Head to Xichang
0900-0930 On the road to the fields
0930-1330 Feast in the Rice Paddy (building, gathering, outdoor cooking and earth-oven building)
1030-1200 Field Soil Aesthetics (soil, mixing soil, creating)
1330-1530 Weed Gathering (weed tea, gathering and making weed pickles)

This time, last year's event name "Feast in the Rice Paddy" has been specially renamed "Minxiong Xichang. Land Chronicles", carrying even more feeling for the land. Emphasizing the place name also emphasizes that differences in local conditions in each area will show different rural scenery and rural culture, and this group of people taking part in the event that day are all re-enacting, reinterpreting and recording the scenes of early "life". It also bears witness to the land-return movement carried out by young people who want to return to their hometowns and put down roots in the land, together with the people in their prime who have long since settled in, cultivated deeply and are raising the next generation, all working toward the ideal of an environmentally friendly, sustainable development.

We look forward to like-minded people, or those interested in learning about friendly agriculture and getting close to the land, bringing their families along to create beautiful land and life experiences together. For sign-ups of three or more people, there is a 10% discount.

Event registration page: http://goo.gl/forms/y6QrC8Rnm4

FB information: "Shuqucao Vegetarian", "Jiabaomai"