Hipster farming doesn't rely on romance; labor respects heaven, and eat well, eight-tenths full

Photo credit for this article: Eat Well. Eighty Percent Full

"We always eat too fast, and eat too much. Life is the same: lived too quickly, stuffed too full, forgetting to leave a two-part space to stop.""2012, we chose to put in the gaps of the soil, in our everyday lives....""We named the rice that heaven granted us“Eat Well“, wanting to sincerely give back to heaven and earth, to thank Him for letting us harvest, to grow our own beautiful food. We hope everyone savors it slowly; inside it is us, the taste of life."

This is the description by Ouyang Mengzhi and her boyfriend Huang Zhaoying, who moved from Taipei City to Hualien, of their more than two years of farming life.

Hipster farming does not rely on romance, but on the labor of cultivation

On the weekend holiday of the third week of every month, Ouyang and Xiaoying head north to set up a stall at the Bend Down Market, currently located at the Public Enterprise Center of National Chengchi University. Ouyang busily greets customers in front of the stall and answers customers' questions, while Xiaoying busily packs and sticks on labels in the back; the two divide the work between them and keep in very good rhythm. On this month's trip north to set up the stall, all of the rice, rice pudding, and brown rice tea sold out completely.

When we used to be office workers, what we dealt with was people, work, bosses, and companies; now that we farm, what we deal with is crops, conscience, all things, and heaven and earth. It seems even harder, but people cannot conquer heaven, so we can only work harder, be humbler, be more optimistic, and let our muscles and mindset become tougher and softer.

Firmly casting aside the typical hipster life of Taipei to farm in Hualien, behind the mountains, Xiaoying said that every time a friend says they envy their current life, "I tell them, then take advantage of your youth and move to Hualien now!"

Unlike many people who always plan, after retiring from their careers, to buy a plot of land and build a house in Hualien and Taitung behind the mountains, to live a leisurely retired life; Xiaoying, who has lived behind the mountains for 3 years, said that Hualien is actually not suited to retired life. He analyzed pragmatically that when you are old and retired, what you need is convenient transportation and complete medical care, and these are still not possible in Hualien, so the people best suited to living behind the mountains are young people. "If you want to come, then come while you are young."

Just walking, just drying grain, life is like this, day after day, plain and true.