DAY 3

Left Hsinchu in the morning of third day to catch the train to Miaoli which was just 30 minutes or less away from Hsinchu Railway Station. Got my egg and ham sandwich from a breakfast stall which you could see it almost every corner in Taiwan.

For my 2 days in Miaoli, or in fact, for this trip, I wanted to do something different - volunteering/helping out at a farm/plantation. This is under WWOOF Taiwan (under the WWOOF programme, all farms must be producing organic products) and the farm I went was 龍溪農場 (Long Xi Farm). There's a long list of organic farms in this programme so go have a look at it! You can choose the farms you're interested in according to the products they produce, location of the farm, harvesting season/ best season to go, minimum stay (some farms have a minimum stay of 7 days) and min/max people they can host at one time. In return for the help rendered to the farmers, volunteers get free lodging and probably meals (at least I had) at the farmers' place. Hence I didn't spend anything for this 2 days in Miaoli.

For myself, I was more interested in fruits and since my schedule allowed only 2 days, I had really limited choices. Plus, another criteria was it has to be along the way I was travelling. I'm glad Uncle Wu (吴叔叔) was open to hosting me even though 2 days meant not much help for him. Uncle Wu picked me up at the Miaoli Railway Station and we had a good chat/ introducing ourselves on the way to his place - a little town just 15-20minute away from the station. I realised Uncle Wu just joined in the programme not too long ago and in fact, I'm the first Singaporean he's hosting!

The awesome view right in front of Uncle Wu's house!

Uncle Wu harvests a lot of fruits and plants at his farm, which include Guavas, Mangoes, Bananas, Ginger, Red dates, and more...Since farmers usually wake up at 5am to start their days work (as it's less hot) and rest from 10am till late afternoon, by the time I reach the farm, it was noon and Uncle Wu kindly bought lunch for me and told me to rest till late afternoon. However it was raining and I couldn't do anything. Thankfully, Uncle Wu brought me out to a weekly farmer's market at Miaoli city/ in front of the Miaoli government central building to help him out. We met a few of the fellow organic farmers who put up their produce for sale too. There were lots of different vegetables which we don't see in Singapore, and other vegetables/fruits which look very different from what we have here. For example, the red/green peppers are of different shape, the brinjas they have are longer and slimmer, and being organic, the watermelon and sweet corn they harvest are so much sweeter! Best, the sweet corn can be eaten raw!

The farmers were all very nice and generous. They really take pride and satisfaction in the products they produce. Most importantly, they advocate organic products for the health of consumers. Before we packed up, one of the farmers gave me a bag of cucumbers to munch on. I don't even have to worry about washing the cucumber first (for fear of any insecticide on the skin) because in organic farming, no harmful chemicals/insecticide are used! 

I met Uncle Wu's wife (she has a day job) when we reached home and she was a super friendly lady! They were so hospitable it made me feel bad just sitting there and waiting for them to serve me. Aunty Wu prepared a lot of dishes for dinner and they were very much like Singapore's home-cooked food. I guess Chinese have similar eating habits! Both of them were a very loving couple. It didn't show much on the outside but through the simple "how was your day" and "I like the dish you prepared today". I think love is sometimes just as simple as these little compliments.

Our dinner for 3 pax!

There were a lot of mosquitoes in the night and I guess just the mosquito patch itself didn't work well. Uncle Wu had an ultrasound mosquito repellent which was placed outside the room. But I still had love bites because the night was so cooling I didn't shut the windows. So if you're ever going to the village/ farms, remember to bring your mosquito repellents!

DAY 4

As I know that Uncle Wu wakes up early to do farming, I tried waking up earlier at 6am but thought he wasn't awake yet, so I went back to sleep and only got myself prepared at 8am. Once again, my hosts are really hospitable, they even got me my breakfast! It made me so guilty that I didn't bring anything from Singapore to give them as a souvenir. 

Anyway, my job for the day was to help Uncle Wu with the guava plants. 

1) Check for flaws on the fruits and keep only 2 of the better ones (on each main branch). You must be asking why only 2? This is because, each guava fruit requires nutrition from at least 10 - 13 leaves. There's only limited leaves on each main branch, hence, we can't keep all the fruits or else we might not harvest anything at all at the end of the period. 

2) Trimming the little branches so the plant will not grow too big

The flower of the Guava plant. After it withers, the fruits start growing. 

The baby guavas!