Penghu's Vegetable Homes: A Small Island with Its Own Agriculture
It is probably because the seafood is so famous! It makes everyone forget that Penghu has agriculture too.
The original title of this article was "Can Agriculture, a Little Soldier, Win Big?" It was one episode in August of the "Penghu New Vision" program on Penghu Fengsheng Radio, a conversation between hosts Wu Shuang-tse and Fu Ching-fan. The two were once frontline campaigners in Penghu's anti-casino movement, and afterward wanted to do more for Penghu, so they decided to launch the "Ocean Citizen Foundation," which is still in the fundraising and preparation stage. This program was planned and produced under the name of the foundation's preparatory office.
As for me, because I volunteered to serve as a foundation volunteer for a full two months, helping with the radio program and the subsequent transcription work, I had the chance to write about Penghu's various "new visions," and through this I came to know the Penghu archipelago, met many Penghu people, and together we brainstormed many things Penghu could do...
In the end, before leaving, because the article I wanted to write was not yet finished, I became a part-time researcher at the foundation's preparatory office and adopted the agriculture section. After all, as a plant-based eater in Penghu, this seafood paradise, I simply had to care about agriculture!
Can this little soldier, "agriculture" (compared with Penghu's fishing industry), really win big for Penghu? That is still a big question mark, but precisely because of that there is a feeling full of hope. I want to use "Penghu Has Agriculture Too" as a series title and keep exploring Penghu's various crops, the food culture of its agricultural products, its various processed goods, small farmers in different places, special ways of selling agricultural products, and so on. Penghu may be small, but it also has small-scale agriculture!
Most people picture Penghu as having "barren land." In summer the sun is too strong, in winter the wind is too strong, not only is the weather poor, water resources are even more insufficient, and even the air is salty. Compared with Taiwan's many fertile fields and rich soil, it is like night and day. Why make trouble for yourself and toil at farming? Just eat what comes from Taiwan!
But Penghu really does have agriculture, especially small farmers. Just look at how many vegetable homes still exist, and you will know. Penghu's agriculture is not large-scale, single-crop corporate farming; there is almost no application of technology or modern agricultural machinery. In every village, every household's front courtyard and back garden, people just open up a patch of land, put a low wall around it, and plant.
That low wall is still made of coral stone even now, exactly the same as what you see in a museum or at some historic site! From ancient times to the present, the vegetable home is still a vegetable home, the agricultural form best suited to Penghu.
Farming Is Tiny, the Industry Is Even Tinier
Perhaps because they are small farmers, growing vegetables has always been mainly for one's own consumption, and only the surplus is sold. This makes farming part of "life" and rarely a "business." Everyone then assumes agriculture does not exist and that nothing significant can be developed from it.
In the years when Penghu's fishing industry flourished, all productive power was poured into it, and no one minded that the vegetable gardens went to waste. Once money was made, they just bought what they needed, and there were vegetables to eat. As a result, among the clusters of vegetable homes, the good ones became historic sites and appeared in photos, and people remember them through pictures; the ordinary ones were invaded and taken over by leucaena and submerged in weeds; or they had long since been leveled and used for other purposes.
Taiwan is very large, and when this kind of small-scale farming fades into history, people take it for granted; Penghu is a small island, so how could it be without agriculture? Moreover, fishery resources are declining. Does "agriculture" itself have the ability to take over? Can it bear the responsibility of nurturing the island's people? This has become an important issue that cannot be ignored.
Therefore, the Ocean Citizen Foundation, still in preparation, has listed agriculture as one of its important projects to promote. Ching-fan in particular, a volunteer very interested in food development, once spoke at length about the potential of Penghu's agricultural products and the role the foundation could play in the future.
Working Hard to Increase the Added Value of Agricultural Products
"Our cabbage here can grow to more than ten jin per head, with excellent quality, not inferior at all to the high-mountain cabbage from Lishan. But it is produced in winter, while Penghu's peak demand is in summer. So how can winter crops be preserved until summer? That is quite a big challenge," said Ching-fan.
"This could include using vacuum packaging for storage, so that vegetables overproduced in winter can be extended to be edible in summer. For example, dried cabbage: people in Penghu knead it by hand before sun-drying it, and it naturally ferments, so it has a very special aroma.
The only thing is that its price is also higher than ordinary machine-dried cabbage. If it were taken to Taiwan to sell, it would probably be hard to compete, so the best approach is still to sell it in Penghu. Therefore, how to increase added value and get tourists to accept it has become a major issue."
Regarding food processing, the foundation has already begun research. Since Ching-fan once did trade in Taiwan, importing fruits such as durian and apples, he found that Japan's food processing technology is very advanced and that there is truly much to learn. Therefore, this year he also passed the entrance exam for a graduate program related to food processing at National Penghu University of Science and Technology and is preparing to enroll, looking forward to more professional and academic resources to help.
Delicious, Healthy, Convenient: The Sure Path for Products
Take Penghu's carrots as an example. They are high in sweetness and rich in aroma. In Penghu's Taiwanese pronunciation, the name is taken from the Japanese sound for "ginseng," which shows how high its nutritional value is considered to be. Ching-fan intends to name a product "Penghu Sweet Honey." After processing and vacuum packaging, it would become a product that can not only be stored until summer but also be opened and eaten immediately, overturning many people's impression that they dare not eat carrots.
Likewise, dried cabbage can also be cooked and made into packaged food, so that after simply heating it, people can tear open the package and eat it right away. It is believed that when promoted in the market, acceptance will increase. Ching-fan said with emphasis:
"As long as it is made delicious and healthy, tourists will definitely be willing to try it, because I have great confidence in Penghu's agricultural products. One taste and they will fall in love with them!"
Old-Time Flavor, Penghu Flavor
Peanuts are also a Penghu specialty, but Kinmen peanut candy is far better known than Penghu's peanut candy. Little do people know that Penghu has many snacks or dishes from grandmother's era that are all very delicious. For example, crushed peanuts mixed with salt and squeezed into round shapes make a snack that blends peanut aroma with saltiness, completely different from sweet peanut candy.
Ching-fan said: "Let tourists come to Penghu and have what Penghu people really eat!"
There is also an old-time home-style dish made by crushing peanuts and stir-frying them with Penghu cabbage. The aroma is so wonderful that those who have eaten it always praise it highly. "Penghu has a 'peanut culture'!" said Shuang-tse, one of the foundation's founders, naming his favorite dish and marveling in this way.
Believing Agriculture Can Improve Residents' Lives
As for the foundation's role, it is a platform! It must help farmers introduce Penghu's agricultural products to tourists so everyone knows how valuable these products are. Perhaps by holding creative agricultural markets or organizing cooperatives, it can work hard to raise the visibility of the products and promote actual sales, so as to look after small farmers' livelihoods.
The foundation's platform, from integrating the research and development, packaging, and marketing of processed agricultural products, to even promising farmers guaranteed purchases during peak production season, aims to encourage small farmers to regain confidence in agriculture, return to the land, and be happy to farm without worrying about sales. At the same time, this is also equivalent to encouraging young people to return home and have a chance to settle down and make a living in Penghu.
The Mission of an "Organic Island"
In the future, it is also hoped that farmers will gradually move toward organic farming methods, adopting practices that do no harm to the land, so that Penghu can truly become an organic island.
When Penghu is an "organic island," any crop produced in Penghu will represent health, purity, and no pollution, and naturally the Penghu brand will be established.
Shuang-tse said: This could be an agricultural revival movement!
Ching-fan said: This could be a green revolution!