Urban Farming Part 1: Let's Grow Vegetables Together at Community College

Text and photos / Zhang Yanying, Chen Yuwen

It has been a long time since we last saw days spent running through lush green farmland. With the rise of industrialization, factories and roads have replaced farms, the food we eat in daily life is artificially made, and even our attitude toward life has become rushed. Yet there are still a group of people quietly working away in the urban jungle, promoting and persisting in their care for the land and their longing for nature.

Perhaps you will come across course titles such as "Happy Weekend Farmer" or "Grow Your Own Vegetables and Eat Them Yourself" in the course offerings of various community colleges, and you may ask, "Where in the city is there farmland to cultivate?" It might exist on land offered by a certain landowner deep in the mountains, it might exist in some corner of the city, or it might exist on the empty rooftop of each one of us.

These community college courses offer different philosophies and stories about natural farming. For example, Xinzhuang Community College has built an ecological farm beside a factory, determined to give nature back a pure land; Wenshan Community College's Zhanghu Farm has no pests or diseases and advocates not weeding too thoroughly; Shilin Community College's Caicaizi Farm promotes a life attitude of being able to let go; and Da'an, Zhongshan, and Xinyi Community Colleges emphasize soil and the principle of "soil and self are one." The opening of these community college courses represents an affirmation and recognition of the land's ability to produce food, as well as a elevation of a green lifestyle attitude.

Balancing Ecology and Farming: Happy Urban Farmers at Xinzhuang Community College

Located at Lane 136, Zhonggang West Road, Taishan District, New Taipei City, China, the ecological farm is surrounded by factories, with trucks coming and going on the road, but no one would have imagined that in such an environment, a piece of "oasis" is still preserved. This is the "Ecological Farm" of Xinzhuang Community College, where students come on weekends to grow vegetables. Chen Pinjie, an early contact person for the ecological farm, described it this way in the book "Urban Farmer Poems and Paintings: Xinzhuang Community College Ecological Farm Album": "This is an Eden for Xinzhuang people, irrigated with fools and water."

Currently, the ecological farm is jointly managed by the Ecological Care Club of Xinzhuang Community College, the Community College Farm Class, and the Farm Work Team. The Ecological Care Club is composed of students who participate in the "Ecology Club" and conduct community plant surveys, trail explorations, and ecological interpretation; the Community College Farm Class consists of students who are enrolled in the current term's "Let's Grow Vegetables Together" course and carry out organic farming courses and hands-on practice in the park; the Farm Work Team consists of students who have not joined the Ecology Club or the Community College Farm Class but continue to grow vegetables in the farm or are willing to maintain the operation of the park.

A real scene of vegetable-growing instruction at the ecological farm

In 2004, Deng Xurong, a teacher at Xinzhuang Community College, donated 1,000 ping of land, hoping for sustainable management. From land preparation to digging the ecological pond, the students did it all themselves, and they also grew vegetables according to ecological farming methods, persisting with the philosophy of being non-toxic, not spraying pesticides, not using chemical fertilizers, not using weed whackers, and not driving away cabbage worms: "We'll eat after the bugs have finished eating."

Lin Junyu, the instructor of "Let's Grow Vegetables Together," said: "At first, Xinzhuang Community College wanted to do only the ecological garden part, and never thought about a teaching farm. Later, they felt that 1,000 ping of land was actually quite large and could be used for different purposes, so they combined it with a teaching farm. That's why it wasn't until 2007 that Xinzhuang Community College invited me to teach a course. But because there are many factories near the ecological farm, there is a lot of industrial waste soil, and the weeds grew either as tall as a person or up to waist height, so the beginning was the hardest. The students all struggled together, starting with clearing the silvergrass. Some dug drainage ditches, some picked up stones, some connected water pipes, and shovel by shovel they broke new ground, and only then did the current ecological farm come to be."

The "urban farmers" of the ecological farm contentedly tending the vegetables they grow

"Many students from the first term developed a kind of revolutionary bond with the ecological farm, and in the end they all volunteered to stay and become part of the farm work team. But currently about one-third of the land is still kept as an ecological area, and the farm work team must also help maintain the ecological area." Lin Junyu said. But he also noted that the most special part of Xinzhuang Community College's ecological farm is that it preserves the ecological garden area, so in the "Let's Grow Vegetables Together" course, an additional ecological introduction and nighttime observation segment is added, making it a fairly distinctive course. Currently there are 28 students in the current term, and 24 people in the farm work team. Classes are held on Wednesday nights every other week, with practical courses on Saturdays every other week.

Liao Xiuchun, chief secretary of Xinzhuang Community College, also said that the goal of establishing the farm is to preserve one more green space for the greater Xinzhuang area (Xinzhuang, Taishan, Wugu), giving community residents an opportunity to get close to the land and a place to understand how natural ecology works. Over these seven years of exploration, with the help of many people, the farm's ecology has continued to grow and develop, gradually becoming one of the distinctive features of Xinzhuang Community College.

Liao Xiuchun said that the farm class has grown from the first batch of 15 people to more than 300 now, with countless volunteers as well. From a barren piece of land to a well-planned farm, it is a record of their own journey and also proof that such a green space can exist in an industrial zone. They hope that more and more people will join their ranks.

Mrs. Wang, a student in Xinzhuang Community College's "Let's Grow Vegetables Together" course, said excitedly: "I think growing vegetables at the ecological farm is very joyful, even more joyful than raising my own children. I also grow vegetables on the balcony space at home now, and I really like having such a little world of my own."

Liao Xiuchun also said that the community college's ecological farm formally demonstrates that leftover community plots in industrial zones can also be used in diverse ways, and it showcases the diversity of ecological land. Xinzhuang is densely populated, and they have already turned the impossible into the possible. Such a farm can also let nearby schoolchildren directly see vegetables growing, and in the future they are considering gradually opening it to the public by reservation.

Return to Nature, Seize the Timing, Easily Eliminate Pests and Diseases - Wenshan Community College

Beside the camphor tree trail in Maokong, Muzha, there is a large farm, and every Saturday afternoon you always see a group of people working hard on neatly divided plots. This is the course jointly offered by Wenshan Community College and Zhanghu Natural Farm -- "Grow Your Own Vegetables and Eat Them Yourself." Zhang Mantang, the instructor of this course, said that people's daily food sources always contain too many artificial chemical substances, which are harmful to human health, so he hopes to enable people to grow crops themselves in an organic way, adopting the concept of natural farming without chemical fertilizers or pesticide spraying, and returning to a life of coexistence with nature.

The landscape of the hands-on farm

During the four-month course, about 30 students participated. The course content included turning soil, land preparation, making beds, fertilizing, sowing, pest and disease prevention, seasonal vegetable planting, and off-campus teaching, among others. The most laborious step was turning the soil, the purpose of which is to replace the topsoil with the subsoil, turning the subsoil that has recovered its fertility after fallowing up to the surface, so that the land's function can be used sustainably. In the hands-on farm of about one fen of land, Zhang Mantang further insisted that students should develop clean and tidy habits during the learning process, and should not casually place any items unrelated to farming, or other artificial plastic objects. However, some students still could not comply.

Rain boots neatly placed to one side

Zhang Mantang said that there was once a student growing loofah. Because the seedlings needed to be covered with transparent plastic bags to protect against the cold, the plastic bags were always seen falling on the ground. This student thought the land would decompose the plastic bags, so he buried them in the soil, and every time other students had to follow behind him and dig the plastic bags out again. Teacher Zhang Mantang said with a smile: "The student was still smugly thinking that the soil really would decompose foreign objects on its own, until we told him that everyone had been digging the plastic bags out, and only then did he feel embarrassed."

As for natural farming, Zhang Mantang believes that seeds generally available on the market are all cultivated in artificial greenhouses and have weaker resistance, so each time before planting it is necessary to "save seeds," keeping the seeds to carry on to the next planting, so that the seeds can recover their resistance and wildness. He said that the Shumei farming method adopts this concept, but what differs from this course is that Shumei farming uses no fertilizer and very little watering, advocating purely natural cultivation, which is why it is also called the "lazy person's farming method." In the course, however, organic fertilizer is used, letting students make organic compost from their own kitchen waste. Therefore, comparing the two, crops grown with the Shumei farming method come out very small, while those grown in the course, although not as pretty as crops sprayed with ordinary pesticides, are moderate in appearance and size, and are healthy and safe.

However, many people think that if pesticides are not sprayed, plants will easily be eaten up by insects. Zhang Mantang said: "Plants are just like people. If they are too protected, their resistance will be weak and they will be vulnerable to viruses, and plants will also be eaten by insects." But when seeds are left over from natural cultivation, they will be wilder than those cultivated in greenhouses, and with strong resistance there will naturally be no insects. Add a moderate amount of fertilizer, and the plants will grow faster. When plants grow to their peak, their resistance begins to decline. At that point, one must seize the timing and harvest before the insects come, thereby reducing the threat of pests and diseases to a minimum.

Zhang Mantang said that in addition to teaching basic hands-on skills in class, he also leads students to visit other organic farms to learn diverse farming methods. He believes that in Taiwan, China, many people have already begun to advocate organic farming. For example, Liu Lixue, who came from Canada to Taiwan, China, to promote the making of organic compost, has very good concepts and ideas. Especially in this living environment full of added chemical materials, it is even more necessary to let people understand the importance of natural farming. Zhang Mantang said: "Only by growing it with your own hands will you know where crops come from, and only then can you eat with peace of mind." (To be continued in the next part)

 
Left photo: each plot has a student's name tag planted in it
Right photo: the mobile chicken coop, now no longer in use