Nan'ao Natural Farm work-exchange holiday, experience the fun of family farming
Text and photography/ Jessie
Do you know how the rice we eat every day is grown?
Experiencing the joy of rice farming through a work-exchange holiday, and letting children understand how precious food is, makes for a wonderful family leisure activity.
This time I traveled to Nan'ao with several fellow bloggers. Nan'ao, located between Yilan and Hualien, is a must-pass spot on the Suhua Highway. Every time I only noticed the majestic sea views beside the coastal highway, but never paid attention to the fact that there is a pure land here that seems like paradise. A group of new farmers, jokingly called fools by traditional old farmers, have leased a large stretch of farmland here, using natural farming methods with no pesticides, no chemical fertilizers, and peaceful coexistence with weeds and apple snails (Pomacea canaliculata), to grow pure, unpolluted rice.
Bending down to plant rice seedlings together with my daughters, what a beautiful experience.
This is Nan'ao Natural Farm. Three men from different fields started their dream project here, growing natural, healthy food for everyone through contract farming on 12 jia of land.
However, managing and cultivating these 12 jia with limited manpower and resources is not easy. They designed work-exchange holidays and experiential work programs so that the general public can come and farm together, continuously and in large numbers.
Nan'ao is also one of the main areas where the Atayal people are concentrated. With the popularity of the movie Seediq Bale, and the earlier mountaineering and archaeological explorations of Lin Ke-xiao in Nan'ao, I felt an added sense of anticipation and curiosity about Nan'ao.
After getting off the car, the first thing that came into view was the farmhouse of Nan'ao Natural Farm. This is a house left behind by Han Chinese who farmed here on the flatland decades ago. Apart from the replaced tin roof, everything remains as it was at the time.
House number plaque
Rice being prepared for home delivery
Next to the farmhouse, a space was kept that serves as a meeting room of sorts. The tools hanging on the wall made me quite curious. It turns out these are the marking tools used when planting rice seedlings.
The farm owner began introducing us to Nan'ao Natural Farm and natural farming. In the left photo is the farm owner, A-Jiang, a former Hsinchu Science Park electronics elite. In middle age, he suddenly felt that the environment he grew up in had suffered severe pollution, so he gave up a high salary and returned to Nan'ao to take concrete action to purify his hometown's land.
In the right photo is the farmer Shi-Cong, an environmental activist, and his own rice, A-Cong Natural Rice.
In the left photo is the farmer Zhao-Zhong, a designer who once won the German iF Design Award. After seeing his broken homeland in the aftermath of the August 8 Flood, he deeply reflected on the true meaning of design and felt he should contribute to the land where he grew up. So he returned to simplicity and came to Nan'ao to become a farmer. When Zhao-Zhong shared his journey with us, he choked up and could not compose himself for a while. (What Zhao-Zhong is holding in his hand is exactly Grandpa Kimura's book. For the story of Grandpa Kimura, see here.)
In the right photo is farm volunteer Hong Hui-Zhi, a long-term volunteer who helps out here and also guided us on the tour.
New tenant farmer Chen Guan-Yu, currently a producer at Wind Music, rented a house in Nan'ao, farming self-sufficiently while seeking musical inspiration.
One square meter (about the size of one tatami mat) of natural farm can yield about 3 bowls of white rice, roughly 1/3 the yield of conventional farming (with chemical fertilizers and pesticides). In terms of short-term economic benefit, it seems not worthwhile, but in the long run, the land is purified, the food is clean, and people are healthier, which is a very worthwhile idea.
Modern people advocate eating more organic fruits and vegetables, but organic plants grown without pesticides have a major hidden concern behind them: excessive fertilization causes plants to contain too much nitrogen, producing nitrate, which once inside the human body becomes nitrite, a carcinogen. A-Jiang showed test data from many organic fruits and vegetables, and the nitrate levels were astonishingly high…..
Through everyone's sharing and exchange, we understood why they adopted natural farming, which is even stricter than organic farming. It all comes from abandoning self-interest and starting from a standpoint of caring for the land. Their goal is to persuade as many farmers as possible to give up pesticides and chemical fertilizers in the future.
After listening to the presentation, we were very much looking forward to going into the fields to farm, but we also wanted to see the results of what they have planted so far.
In the natural farm, egrets can be seen everywhere. Maintaining ecological balance is one of the principles of natural farming.
Manually planted rice seedlings are not as neat, clean, and weed-free as machine-planted ones, and one must wait for the seedlings to grow strong before planting them in the field. But this can reduce the harm from apple snails, because machine-planted rice seedlings are too tender and are easily eaten by apple snails.
Small clumps of soil appear, made by worms like earthworms turning the soil in the rice paddy, and nature provides nutrients.
The rule of natural farming is to let crops and weeds grow together. What looks like a field of overgrown grass actually has beans growing in it.
Next, we began rolling up our pant legs and sleeves to head into the fields…..
First we dug up the seedlings. The seedlings were really sturdy. A-Jiang told us to try to find ones of the same size. Each person's workload was one basin of seedlings. It turned out that one basin seemed not nearly enough~
A-Jiang first went into the field to show us how to plant. Using two fingers or the diagonal-insertion method makes it easy to plant the seedlings into the soil.
To be honest, I really hesitated for a moment about stepping barefoot into the soft, wet soil, but after gathering my courage and stepping down, it felt pretty good. The suction of the mud also gave my feet a SPA treatment along the way.
Everyone bent down to plant seedlings. After giving instructions, A-Jiang also followed along and planted beside us. In fact, our work was more like replanting seedlings, filling in the empty spots left by dead seedlings.
Once we finished, no one was willing to immediately wash off their muddy feet.
Everyone come together for a group photo
Then we went to the nearby irrigation ditch to wash our feet. The strong current almost swept away Amy's glasses. Thanks to A-Jiang reaching out and scooping them up, Amy's glasses were retrieved just in time.
Just one hour of work could be exchanged for a bag of rice. We filled our own rice bags ourselves. Although A-Jiang hinted to everyone that leaving the bag a little loose would make it look better when filled, everyone filled it with all their might! (Because everyone knew this rice was extremely precious and not usually available to eat.)
The simple packaging has a very refined feel. This is the rice for our family of four. One bag of rice can cook about 5-6 cups of rice.
That evening, after returning from Nan'ao, I couldn't wait to take out the natural rice and cook it. Amid the aroma slowly wafting from the electric rice cooker, I couldn't help saying that it had been a long time since I smelled the original, natural fragrance of rice. Although it was not as crystal clear as ordinary white rice, the pale yellow grains are rice bran that retains nutrients and contains dietary fiber, and the red spots are the mark of the native rice variety.
After a day of hard work, I finally understood the meaning of "Who knows that every grain on the plate is the fruit of hard work." Although the weather was kind to us, making that day mild and cool, and though there was light rain, the rain stopped at the moment we went into the field to plant seedlings, so we did not have to suffer from sweat dripping onto the soil. This experience trip not only moved me, but also gave me much to reflect on. Knowing that some people are quietly working hard for healthy food, can we also support them with the same attitude? Let there be more and more good farmland in Taiwan, and let this land grow sweeter and sweeter.
Nan'ao Natural Farm, contract-farm your own natural good field http://tw.discount.yahoo.net/
What is the Taiwan Good Field Movement?http://tw.topic.