Yihe Garden Introduction
This is the "Countryside Happy Gourmet Time" series of events organized by the Hsinchu County Local Character Industry Development Association - Yi He Yuan / Dining Table in the Rice Field, inviting everyone to taste the local specialty ingredients from Hsinchu County. The countryside feast at Yi He Yuan welcomes guests with local ingredients. Yi He Yuan is located in the Ruankiao Village of Zhudong Township, an important starting point in the history of Hsinchu County's water resources development and an ideal cycling route. The entire Ruankiao area comprises about 12 hectares of farmland, of which 85% is planted with rice, 10% with vegetables, and 5% with individual personal produce. Most of the rice in the Ruankiao area is organically cultivated; the organic rice production group has its own milling, drying, and packaging facilities and has once won the national top award for organic rice. When visiting Yi He Yuan, why not take this limited happy taste home? Chen Li-Long has created a leisurely organic farming lifestyle in the garden. The operator of Yi He Yuan, Chen Li-Long, is the son-in-law of the Ruankiao area. His long-established traits as a tech person have led him to deduce an "optimal" management approach from the vegetable planting process. First, he employs "planned planting," where the customers' ordering period lasts for four months with prepayments. This means that planting only begins after confirming the order. Therefore, when delivering vegetables to subscribers each week, there won't be more than five leftover packages, avoiding the problem of oversupply. Chen Li-Long has diversified the management of the farm. He has promoted urban residents to engage in farming and taught "Organic Vegetable Cultivation and Health Preservation" at the community college, which was selected as an outstanding course in 2010, attracting students from urban areas to come and practice organic farming, experiencing rural life. Later, he launched a one-day or half-day "Food and Agriculture Education Experience Camp," which can be organized for groups of more than 20, attracting many agricultural associations, kindergartens, senior universities, and families to participate. AIESEC International Volunteers Experience in Taiwan. Three years ago, the AIESEC National Chengchi University chapter sought a practical farm in Hsinchu County for international volunteers to stay for 6 to 8 weeks and engage in various organic agricultural processes. The AIESEC students first came to the farm for short stays and found it feasible, so in the summer of 2012, they began recruiting overseas students from AIESEC to Taiwan for short stays. From Monday to Friday, foreign students worked in Yi He Yuan, and on weekends they traveled around Taiwan with NCCU students. Watching the volunteer students working in the fields, Chen Li-Long remarked that the busy seasons during winter and summer vacations require accommodating many camp groups. After the vacations, only the two elderly farmers are left to farm. Even on weekdays, this agricultural ambassador of Hsinchu County is not idle, as he receives various visiting groups discussing organic farming and participates in numerous activities promoted by the Hsinchu County Agricultural Development Association to facilitate local agricultural exchanges, keeping him extremely busy. This tech farmer who has established a communication platform by the riverbank in Zhudong has become the best spokesperson for agricultural tourism in Hsinchu County.
