Soak in a hot spring, eat organic food, and take a Wulai green market trip this weekend
Wulai District is the southernmost administrative district of New Taipei City and the only Indigenous district within its boundaries, inhabited mainly by the Atayal people. The place name comes from the Atayal word Ulai, meaning scalding hot water. Less than an hour's drive from the Greater Taipei area, it is a great choice for a family sightseeing mini-trip on a two-day weekend. Since last year, the Indigenous Peoples Department of the New Taipei City Government's "New Taipei City Wulai District Indigenous LOHAS Agriculture Sustainable Development Plan" has, through guidance for the transition to organic farming, introduced farm experience marketing and built the shared brand "Wulai Green Market" to promote the upgrading and development of Indigenous industries and increase local job opportunities.
Supporting Wulai's organic agriculture means protecting Greater Taipei's drinking water source
The entire Wulai area lies within the Nanshi River basin, which meets the Beishi River in Xindian District and flows into the Feitsui Reservoir, which supplies tap water to the 4 million people of the Greater Taipei area, making Wulai a Taipei water source protection area. Farming here with pesticide spraying would affect public water safety. Through the plan's guidance for transition, switching to organic farming methods is a sign of respect for the land and, even more, ensures the drinking water health of Greater Taipei residents. At present, 13 farming households in the Wulai area steadily participate in weekly courses, responding and actually farming in a friendly way.
To strengthen the hands-on farming courses, Wu Meimao, founder of Taiwan Original Flavor, specially built the "Wulai Demonstration Farm" as a teaching base for organic cultivation, using accessible hands-on practice plus basic theoretical explanation to gradually guide students in exploring the dynamic balance between organic farming and ecology; the vegetables and fruits on this farm may not be the most beautiful, but they can reveal the problems encountered under various different growing conditions.
The farm overlooks Wulai's Meiren Mountain, and together with the terraced field landscape left from the Japanese colonial period, farming here with an occasional gentle breeze passing by is the best leisure activity for the weekend; it currently operates by reservation, offering farm tours, farming experiences, and freshly picked, freshly eaten lunches.
Buy local, eat seasonal ~ the shared brand "Wulai Green Market"
Wulai is the Indigenous township closest to the Greater Taipei area. We hope to truly promote here the "Community Supported Agriculture consumption model (CSA, Community Support Agriculture)", reduce unnecessary food miles, lower energy use and carbon dioxide emissions, and, through primary and secondary school safe nutritious lunch systems, farmers' market friendly production and sales platforms, and farm experience activities, jointly build the "Wulai Green Market" brand.
At present, the Seed Experimental Primary School located in Wulai District uses Wulai local vegetables for part of its nutritious lunches, and Chang'an Elementary School and Rixin Elementary School in the Greater Taipei area also use Wulai District vegetables one day a week as ingredients for nutritious lunches.
In addition, all farmers participating in the plan, under the name "Wulai Green Market", take turns setting up stalls under Bitan Bridge in Xindian every Sunday, personally facing consumers to introduce and sell vegetables and fruits grown by their own families. Through this kind of friendly interaction, consumers come to know the agricultural ecological value and social educational function of the Wulai area, thereby promoting industrial upgrading.
Event Contact
Taiwan Way Social Enterprise Co., Ltd. | 02-22328550 | [email protected]
Ms. Kuo Ting-chun 0913-481-308
Ms. Liu Chia-wen 0988-288-498