Putting the Culture into Agriculture

Framed by dramatic mountain scenery and blessed with an abundance of sunshine, the counties of Hualien and Taitung are packed full of agritourism adventures that invite you to roll up your sleeves, fill your belly, and learn a thing or two along the way.

Hualien – Fenglin Township

Liao Kuai Tobacco Building

Fenglin Township is an agricultural area in the sleepy East Rift Valley. There’s a train station, but few tourists disembark, and the rhythms of daily life remain simple and slow-paced. Each day, the sun rises above the Coastal Mountain Range, passes over the neat grid of roads and fields on the valley floor – a relic of Japanese-era town planning – and then sinks below the far-off peaks of the Central Mountain Range.

Xu Ming-tang, the current guardian of the Liao Kuai Tobacco Building, has lived most of his life here. He counts himself among the 60 percent of Fenglin residents of Hakka descent (an ethnic group known for their hardiness and business nous) whose families migrated here during the Japanese era (1895-1945) to cultivate sugarcane and tobacco. These crops became vital to Japan in its war efforts, and this preserved tobacco barn, with its wooden frame and tiled roof, is one of many that once dotted the landscape.

These days, few tobacco plantations are still in operation in Taiwan. Xu himself only maintains a small row of the large-leaved plants in the front yard – demonstration aids for the tours he conducts. It’s not a polished operation, but it’s an undeniably genuine peek into local history. And for those who have a little longer to spend – say 90 minutes – there are DIY workshops available (Chinese only; bookable via Facebook or LINE), in which participants can make traditional treats such as ang ku kueh (turtle-shaped cakes of glutinous rice stuffed with sweetened adzuki bean paste) and fermented tofu.

Liao Kuai Tobacco Building | 廖快菸樓
Add: No. 79, Fuxing Rd., Fenglin Township, Hualien County
(花蓮縣鳳林鎮復興路79號)
Tel: 0935-828-211
FB: www.facebook.com/liaokuaiyulou
Website: www.funhualien.com.tw/product/yulou-fenglin

Taitung – Beinan Township

Good Time Fruit

If you haven’t yet tasted a custard apple, what are you doing with your life? OK, so this is slightly hyperbolic, but I’m only half-joking. Custard apples (aka sugar apples, sweetsops, and Buddha’s head fruit) are a true gift from nature – ugly, lumpy green skin concealing a pale, creamy, heavenly sweet mess studded with large black seeds. Civilized folk may tell you that it’s best eaten by scooping out the flesh with a spoon. They’re wrong. For maximum enjoyment, it should be devoured one sticky, finger-plucked segment at a time.

In case you can’t tell, I am big on custard apples, so while recently in Taitung – Taiwan’s custard apple heartland – I was excited to go straight to the source. Enter Good Time Fruit. Here, under the strong Taitung sun, husband and wife team Hsieh Jin-hong and Lin Pei-ying tend to orchards bursting with traditional custard apples (a direct descendant of those brought to Taiwan 400 years ago by the Dutch), and a younger variety known as the pineapple sugar apple (equally delicious but with a firmer texture and a smooth sweetness tempered by a hint of pineappley sourness). They also offer hands-on fruit-picking and DIY experiences.

Every activity at Good Time Fruit begins with a brief Pomology 101 talk. For Lin, this is an opportunity to impart valuable information that will last long after any fruit is taken home – I now know how to choose the sweetest passion fruits. It also meant that when we hit the pheasant-friendly, wildflower-bordered orchards, we knew how to go about picking the perfect produce. (Travel in Taiwan visited during the winter custard apple harvest, but you can check the farm’s Facebook to see what’s available at any given time, and to book.)

Back in the classroom, our visit concluded with a kid-friendly DIY activity – a spot of jamming. With just two ingredients and no complicated steps, we were soon clutching freshly filled jars of passion fruit jam – a potted distillation of southern sunshine to enjoy on our morning toast back in January’s overcast Taipei.

Good Time Fruit | 好時果子
Add: No. 5-3, Banjiu, Meinong Village, Beinan Township, Taitung County
(台東縣卑南鄉美農村班鳩5-3號)
Tel: (08) 957-2470
Hours: 9am-9pm (closed on Sun)
FB: www.facebook.com/good.time.fruit
Website: portaly.cc/goodtimefruit