Rooted in the land, practiced in everyday life

by Tianjing & Cha

"Moonflower": also known as periwinkle or Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus), it has strong vitality and can bloom even in poor soil, like the survival wisdom of people at the bottom of society, possessing an unyielding and tenacious character.

"Learning": being an apprentice to nature, passing on the experience of old farmers, and the mutual teaching and learning among participating partners.

"Farm garden": beyond the paddy fields and the kumquat orchard, there is also a big family of "barter" or "exchange labor for goods."

In 2009, after going through many mainstream employee roles, Cha decided to switch tracks and come to Yilan, with its fine mountains and waters, to farm. With a lifestyle of "local production for local consumption", the hope is that labor, life and the environment are connected together, and that in pursuit of maximum profit one should not let relationships between people grow distant, nor let environmental pollution become a necessary evil of economic development. The most obvious evidence is the rivers and irrigation canals carrying all kinds of factory wastewater, which makes clear just how much cost the environment has already borne.

So starting from paddy rice and a kumquat orchard, they began to explore, with eco-friendliness as the core value, pondering the subtle balance between selling price, yield, and coexistence with birds, insects and weeds. Cha, with no farming experience at all, absorbed experience bit by bit from Tianjing's father through hands-on teaching, and was often pulled back and forth by doubts such as "the trees will die if you don't spray" and "if you don't cut the grass the nutrients will all be robbed," but this process was at the same time the beginning of dialogue with and gradual influence on conventional farmers.