I-He Garden Introduction
This is the "Happy Good Eating Time" series of events organized by the Hsinchu County Local Characteristic Industry Development Association - Yihe Garden / Dining Table in the Rice Fields, inviting everyone to taste the local specialty ingredients of Hsinchu County. The country feast at Yihe Garden welcomes guests with local ingredients. Located in Ruanchiao Village, Zhudong Township, Yihe Garden is an important starting point in the history of water conservancy development in Hsinchu County and an ideal bicycle route. The entire Ruanchiao area has about 12 hectares of farmland, of which 85% is planted with rice, 10% with vegetables, and 5% with individually used crops. Most of the rice in the Ruanchiao area is organically grown, and the organic rice production team has its own milling, drying, and packaging equipment, having once won first place in the national organic rice competition. When visiting Yihe Garden, don't forget to take this limited happiness flavor home. Chen Liyong, the operator of Yihe Garden, has cultivated an organic lifestyle. He is the son-in-law of the Ruanchiao area, and his long-formed technological characteristics have led him to summarize an "optimized" management approach from the vegetable growing process. First, he adopts "planned planting," where the customer's ordering period is four months, and prepayments are made, confirming the order before planting begins. Therefore, the remaining vegetables in the farm do not exceed five bags each week, avoiding the problem of oversupply. Chen Liyong has diversified and diversified the management of this farm. He has promoted urban residents to come to the countryside for farming and has offered "Organic Vegetable Planting and Health Preservation" courses at community universities, which were selected as excellent academic courses in 2010, attracting metropolitan students to come here to grow vegetables, practically operating organic farming, and experiencing rural life. Later, he launched "Food and Agriculture Education Experience Camps," which can be organized with groups of over 20 people, attracting many agricultural associations, kindergartens, senior universities, and parent-child families to participate. Three years ago, the AIESEC National Economics Business Administration Student Association (AIESEC) at National Chiao Tung University sought a practical farm in Hsinchu County for international volunteers to stay for 6 to 8 weeks and operate various processes of organic farming. The AIESEC students from Chiao Tung University first stayed at the farm for a short experience and found it feasible, so they began recruiting overseas AIESEC students to come to Taiwan for short stays during the summer of 2012. From Monday to Friday, foreign students worked in farming at Yihe Garden and traveled around Taiwan with Chiao Tung students on weekends. Observing the volunteer students working in the fields, Chen Liyong said that he is busier during the summer and winter vacations, accommodating many group activities. After the summer and winter vacations, only the two old farmers remain to work the fields. In fact, even on weekdays, this agricultural ambassador from Hsinchu County is never idle, as he is busy with discussions and exchanges with various visiting groups on organic farming, as well as engaging in activities promoting local agricultural exchanges organized by the Hsinchu County Agricultural Development Association. This technological farmer who has established an exchange platform by the river in Zhudong has become the best spokesperson for agricultural tourism in Hsinchu County.
