Yang Rumen's Journey to the Source (3): The Vitality of Runhui Farm

Every time I come to Meinong in Kaohsiung, I always look for Brother Qishang.

We got to know each other about four years ago. The market had not yet been established, and I came to Kaohsiung for an apprenticeship. The nice way to put it is "apprenticeship"; simply put, it was "searching for a way out in life"; plainly put, it was "I have no idea what I want to do, so I am just walking around and looking." Ha... so I stayed at Brother Qishang's place for a while, helping with the farming. At night, I would walk around and chat with him. "Qimei Community College, the Tobacco Leaf Guidance Station, the Hometown Love Association, the Young Generation Association, the Zhong Lihe Foundation..." Those were happy days, and I also met many people working together for their hometown and the land.

Runhui Farm is located at No. 31, Section 1, Zhongxing Road, Meinong Town. The crops currently grown include "rice, sweet potato, soybean, black bean, mung bean, corn, short-term leafy vegetables..." Friends who want to join can call 07-685-0938. The main members are Gu Wenjin and Zeng Qishang.

The reason I photographed the lettuce first is that north of Hsinchu it had been raining nonstop. For example, at the Houtong Ecological Education Park, aside from taro and Clerodendrum cyrtophyllum growing well, even "tough" crops like sweet potato leaves, Thai basil, and Cuban oregano were not doing well! This year there were about 1 month or more of drizzly days, and the vegetables never grew very well. When I came to Meinong in Kaohsiung and saw lettuce with such "vitality," of course I had to take a photo first.

If I remember correctly, this should be the common "Fushou leaf lettuce." The color is so purple, so glossy; it is a display of vitality under ample sunlight. The usual way to eat it is raw. The simple preparation is to mix a sauce. For me, that means "mayonnaise": crack an egg into a cup, take only the yolk, slowly add olive oil, stir quickly with chopsticks, and finally add sea salt to season. The ratio is about one egg yolk to around 50g of mayonnaise. If that seems like too much trouble, wrapping it directly around grilled meat is also very good.

The sweet potato field looks like it is growing really well. Happy! In fact, within organic and non-toxic farming, growing rice, leafy vegetables, sweet potatoes, and miscellaneous grains... is common, mainly because they are easy to manage. After sweet potatoes are planted from cuttings, aside from fertilizing, turning the vines, and harvesting, there is not much work. It is the transport, sorting, packing, shipping, and sales after harvest that are tiring.

The corn varieties are fruit corn and Huazhen, two varieties, both mainly eaten raw. Their sweetness is around 12 degrees, which is "fruit grade." When planting, "tall-stem crops" are usually planted at the head and tail of the field. Other common ones include papaya and banana. One reason is to conveniently mark the size of the field area; another is to increase income. As the older generation often says, "If you plant, you will harvest, and then you will have something to eat."

It is commonly heard that planting "tall-stem crops" is prohibited on riverbed land. The standard is: crop plants with a mature height of 50 cm or more. This is beside the point!

Mice are digging holes. "Rodent damage" is a very serious "disaster" for sweet potatoes. Mice are "burrowers," so on the surface the sweet potato field looks fine, but underneath the sweet potatoes have actually already been "scattered and ruined." When I was farming in Guangfu, Hualien before, wild boars and ring-necked pheasants would also come to visit. For farming friends, this is a very hard "psychological barrier" to overcome. If you do not use poison, getting rid of field mice is as hard as reaching the sky. But under the premise of a "friendly environment," sigh!... I can only write it out and let everyone understand.

One pit after another, plus the tunnels they dig, make it easy for farming friends to step into empty space in the field and fall down.

There are many sayings related to sweet potatoes, such as "can not tell sweet potato from taro," and "sweet potato is not afraid to rot in the soil." Many among the older generation have always kept an impression of sweet potatoes as "poverty" and "dried sweet potato strips," in unhappy memories of struggling through life. So if you want to treat an older person to a meal, remember to find out first whether they still eat sweet potatoes. Do not happily order sweet potato rice and end up being "shot down."

The sweet potatoes in the photo are cracked mainly because the climate changed too much: rain one moment, clear skies the next. The sweet potatoes could not adapt, causing "sudden growth," and they split open. Usually people would not see sweet potatoes like this on the market, because their appearance is poor. When farming friends do their "sorting," they have already removed them in the field.

At the third Farmers' Market seminar last time, Meng Kai of Hepu Market mentioned how to solve the problem of "what can be eaten and what can be sold." When people buy things nowadays, a large part of them demand "appearance," meaning the produce must look good, which leads farming friends in the field to sort out a lot of what is "edible" and keep only what is "sellable." The rejected "edible" portion can only be eaten by themselves or given to friends. A large part of it is left in the field as compost. This is especially true in the "organic, non-toxic" field, and this is also one reason why prices have always been hard to make "affordable." So how do we solve it?

In the past 3 to 4 years, more and more farming friends have been growing soybeans, and soybeans are the same. One reason is that soybean prices have recently improved; another factor is "plasticizers," which scared everyone. The second is that demand for health is getting higher and higher. The third is the shortage of international food, which has made everyone increasingly adopt the concept of "local production, local sales."

Soybean is one of Taiwan's main food crops, most of it made into soy milk, tofu, dried tofu... According to the "Food Balance Sheet" and "Customs Import and Export Statistics," Taiwan imports about 2.07 million tons of soybeans a year, while local production is about 200 tons. If you miss seeing one "ten thousand" character, you might mistakenly think it is all produced in Taiwan. In fact, 99% is imported. Think about it: if one day we could not rely on international trade to buy food, what would we eat?

Does soybean look like edamame? In fact, in a broad sense, 70% mature soybeans and black beans are both edamame, so edamame is soybean and black bean when young. It is only that later they were improved for different cooking methods, leading many people to mistakenly think they are different.

Lantern grass, also called lantern fruit, paozai grass, or cutleaf groundcherry. Friends who have tried the "tree-ripened red" "lantern fruit jam" at the market probably do not know what it originally looks like! This is a "weed" easily seen in fields, but in the past I only treated it as a sweet snack and never thought of other uses. It turns out the jam is also so delicious, and it is often used as a gift, or brought out during speeches to show everyone and let them guess what it is. Few people can guess. After all sorts of discussion, when the answer is announced, it always makes everyone "amazed." It is also a great helper for interpersonal exchange, ha...

After the fruit ripens, it is somewhat orange all over. When green, it is a bit sour and astringent. After turning red, the fruit tastes a little like "tomato"; the flesh is slightly sweet and also contains seeds.

Here is another close-up, so you can see it more clearly. Remember there is another very similar one called "balloon vine," but the fruit inside is like a seed and cannot be eaten.

Brother Qishang's means of transport between home and the fields is a "Wild Wolf motorcycle." When he needs to carry large agricultural machinery, he drives a small truck. Ordinarily, this motorcycle is the tool for getting around.

Why take this photo? Actually, I wanted to bring out "that scene of rural life": "ease." The Constitution protects the people's rights to subsistence, residence, work, and property, yet farmers' land and houses are constantly "expropriated," causing farmers to lose work, their homes to be demolished, their property to be infringed upon, and their survival to be threatened. So what should be done?

Further Reading
Yang Rumen's Place-of-Origin Journey (1) Friendly Aquaculture Without Drugs
Yang Rumen's Place-of-Origin Journey (2) Teaching You to Understand Healthy Aquaculture