Thousand-Mile Trail Around the Island: Searching for the Source of Ingredients, Little Universe Episode 4
Have you ever eaten a small cucumber just picked from the vine, still bearing its yellow flower?
In 2011, the Thousand-Mile Trail (Qianli Badao) worked with eight communities to launch a two-day, one-night "Little Travels to Farming and Fishing Villages," hoping that through travel arrangements that are "slow, fixed-point, and in-depth," more people could come to know the beauty still preserved in farming and fishing villages across Taiwan, China. One stop brought us to Zunliao Village in Xizhou Township, Changhua County, a settlement formed along the irrigation waters of the "Cizipi Canal," its walls painted with horizontal stripes of blue, green, and white - an utterly ordinary, typical plains farming village.
Drawing in water from the Zhuoshui River, the "Cizipi Canal" - the first officially established canal listed by the Japanese during their rule - is the most important source of agricultural water in southern Changhua, and is also the origin of the name "Zunliao." The canal water is rich in minerals and silt carried by the Zhuoshui River from the Central Mountain Range; the water is dark and turbid, yet it enables crops to grow healthily. After the winter harvest, farmers always channel water into the fields and let it sit over the winter, "nourishing the soil" so that the minerals in the water replenish the nutrients, trace elements, and so on that the fields have lost, maintaining the soil's fertility in a natural way. Locals always say with pride that this is why the Zhuoshui River's "turbid-water rice" is so fragrant, chewy, and delicious.
The Earth God's Cane: A Faith That Reveres Heaven
In September, at the end of summer, our group visited Zunliao. While the community aunties were still preparing lunch, the community director-general led a group of 15 people, who mounted all kinds of bicycles borrowed from neighbors, and rode along the farm roads around the village, enjoying the breeze and sunlight of the countryside, full of the scent of rice. Turning onto a farm road flanked on both sides by rice paddies, among the rice that had just formed ears stood a bamboo pole of peculiar shape, tied with a stack of joss paper and three incense sticks, which firmly caught everyone's attention.
None of our companions had ever seen such a thing, not even those who had grown up in farming villages. Director Zhuang, the association chairman, explained to us that this is the "Earth God's cane," which after the Mid-Autumn Festival is installed in the fields like this. It turns out that farmers, considerate of the Earth God's toil, let the aging Earth God have a cane to lean on when patrolling the fields each night, so he can walk more steadily; it is also a pious prayer to the Earth God for the protection and care of this field, so that the harvest season may bring a bountiful yield in peace. This is the simple faith of farming villages, of which we, who have long lived in urban areas, are largely unaware, yet it truly reveals the close bond between farmers and the land, and also symbolizes the ordinariness and importance of revering heaven and giving thanks in rural faith.
Visiting the Sources of the Food on Our Tables
After a delicious lunch of local dishes prepared by Auntie Atao's excellent cooking, we followed the winding farm roads beside the canal to visit the farmers in the Zunliao area who are working hard to put "pesticide-free cultivation" into practice, and to learn the stories behind the food on our tables. Passing by Chinaberry trees and longan trees in flower and fruit along the fields, rounding several narrow corners, passing large nursery plots of Malabar chestnut on both sides and rice paddies swaying in the wind, we finally, before the elevated high-speed rail bridge, turned left onto an even smaller farm road and stopped our bicycles in front of a simple greenhouse built of aluminum strips and clear plastic sheeting, where Chen Cangyan, a young farmer who left construction work for farming, introduced to our group the "Peace Farm" he and his wife had built for their four young children.
On a summer afternoon, the greenhouse felt stuffy and humid, noticeably different from the mild warmth outside. Brother Cangyan's sun-darkened face wore a confident, shy smile as he explained the story of his return home. In one corner of the greenhouse stood a stereo and a laptop; when someone visits, they help him explain his career change and his journey of cultivating cucumbers, and they are also the best tools for recording the greenhouse environment, changes in the microbial strains applied, and growth observations at any time.
Originally contracted in Taichung, China, for architectural stainless-steel design, he returned home two years ago to take up cucumber cultivation and to study "pesticide-free cultivation." His idea was simple: "Because of long working hours, in the fields I'm often harvesting from dawn until I sort things out at night; the greenhouse is my family's living room, and the place where the kids do their homework and play." In order to let his four children run and jump freely in the greenhouse, he worked desperately to research "biological pest and disease control methods," doing his best to abandon chemical pesticides and instead blend and configure different microbial strains to strengthen the plants' resistance, which also extended the number of harvests possible after each cycle of cucumber growth.
Brother Cangyan pointed to the soil at the base of the cucumber plants and had us observe what was special about it: everywhere were tiny clumps of soil made up of round soil particles less than 1 mm across. These are earthworm castings, and also evidence that the soil is naturally healthy and full of biological activity - the earthworms teeming in the field live freely in the soil, loosening it and increasing its fertility, and adding natural elements to the cucumber field as well.
Cucumbers grown in such a naturally harmless growing environment are especially crisp, sweet, and fragrant. Brother Cangyan always picks cucumbers still bearing their yellow flowers straight from the vine and lets everyone try their fresh taste, and we always end up enthusiastically ordering the freshly picked cucumbers as we eat, because they are just so delicious! Compared with conventional farming that uses pesticides, this approach is time-consuming and labor-intensive, but he has gradually accumulated a certain amount of successful experience: the production season has been lengthened and the yield raised. What is lacking now is a stable and sufficient sales channel. Chen Cangyan is always very willing to share his insights with interested fellow farmers, so that together they can practice pesticide-free cultivation and give healthy produce and the land more opportunities to be enjoyed by more people.
Promoting Organic, Pesticide-Free Local Industry: The Whole Township Joins In
After saying goodbye to Brother Cangyan, we rode back with the already westward-slanting sun behind us to visit another farmer who specializes in producing organic tomatoes - Su Cheng'en. Passing through fields full of vegetables, the cabbages glowed golden under the slanting sun; turning into a broad front yard, the hospitable and cheerful Brother Su welcomed everyone with a bold smile, kept bringing out his own herbal teas and delicious fruits to treat everyone, and led us to get to know the "Sweetheart Tomatoes" he cultivates. Because he uses effective microorganisms and waters carefully, in addition to the organic tomatoes in the greenhouse growing healthily, they are almost always in short supply every production season; the papayas, loofahs, Thai basil, and yams planted all around the garden also grow especially well because they absorb the same nutrients, drawing constant praise from our companions, and Brother Su always generously shares them with everyone.
Going in summer is mistimed, as the tomatoes have not yet fruited, while early winter in December is exactly when the tomatoes begin to set fruit. Adults and children alike excitedly walked into the garden to look for tomatoes that had already ripened, and the long-famed Sweetheart Tomatoes truly lived up to their reputation: thin-skinned, generously fleshed, fragrant, and sweet! We could not resist popping one after another into our mouths to taste them. And the five Golden Retriever puppies born this year that Brother Su's family keeps excitedly followed us up and down, burrowing into the garden and eating tomatoes nonstop - these dogs are so lucky with food!
Just like Chen Cangyan, Su Cheng'en does not hesitate to share his agricultural techniques with nearby fellow farmers, hoping to pass on land-friendly growing methods so that more small farmers and consumers at both ends of the consumption chain can taste the sweet flavor of the land.
The Xizhou Township Office is also working hard to find sales and promotion possibilities for these small farmers, and to promote the localization of food ingredients for public preschools, buying products directly from local organic small farmers to provide safe food for the children's lunches. This approach lets children eat healthy, local food, while small farmers gain a fixed channel to sell their less attractive but one-hundred-percent healthy second-grade produce. This cooperation creates healthy exchange beneficial to the local industry, and the township office's dedication will also encourage more farmers to change their methods and improve their techniques, joining the ranks of land-friendly, pesticide-free agriculture.
On our way back, the bicycles became a little harder to ride, because the baskets were filled with abundant gifts of happiness. Everyone pedaled joyfully alongside the setting sun back to the community homes to rest, ending a day full of surprises in the fields. And having the chance to meet these farmers engaged in friendly agriculture in their hometowns made one feel a kind of selfless generosity, an open-mindedness willing to share. I could not help but wonder whether it is because they are in direct contact with the land, receiving so many gifts from it, that the people here look upon life as rich and fulfilled. Compared with my own experience of growing up in the city, perhaps because of a fear of scarcity, and more because of attachment to material things, I have never had the courage to give or share...
This tiny Zunliao, a typical farming settlement, where all the neighbors up and down the streets are relatives; it is not a tourist area, so of course there are no hotels or homestays, not even snack shops; yet this plain and tightly knit village hosted the friends of the Little Travels for two days and one night full of neighborhood warmth and enthusiastic exchange. The travelers felt the leisure and abundance of the Taiwanese countryside, and learned much about food, sharing, and the determination to protect the land and the next generation. When the journey ended, we heard everyone saying that next time's Little Travels would come to Zunliao again; next time's Little Travels would go again to the source of our food ingredients, to visit the farmers who produce diligently...