The harvest season is underway for watermelons, a local specialty of Sinfong Township in Hsinchu County. Tien Chao-lung, known as the “watermelon prince,” has been growing melons for more than half a century, and he still starts work at sunrise. Notably, the native melon variety he grows is of superior quality, so when harvest season arrives his regular customers will have ordered the whole crop in advance.
Watermelons are a local specialty of Sinfong Township. Although the harvest cannot compare with southern and eastern Taiwan in terms of quantity, the local melons are very sweet with thin skins and delicate flesh. Local growers traditionally sell most of their crop direct to the public. In recent years the population of Sinfong Township has been aging and, considering the hard work involved in growing the local specialty melons, there are fewer and fewer melon fields in the area these days.
Tien, who is 66 years old, started farming alongside his father at the age of 10 and currently owns 0.4 of a hectare of land in Fongkeng Village. Each year he plants watermelons, cantaloupes and rice in rotation to let the farmland recuperate. Tien says the land around Fongkeng Village has a deep layer of red soil with good drainage, so rainfall is not a big worry.
Photo: Liao Hsueh-ju, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者廖雪茹
The big red-fleshed watermelons that Tien grows are a native variety grown without grafting, and they are really delicious. To maintain the melon field environment, he weeds the fields diligently every day, so that there is hardly a weed to be seen. When the melon vines blossom and bear fruit, he thins the fruit out and discards the inferior ones, so that when harvest time approaches, his top-quality melons are immediately snapped up by his customers in advance.(Liberty Times, translated by Julian Clegg)
新竹縣新豐鄉特產西瓜進入採收季節,人稱「西瓜王子」的田朝龍,種瓜逾半世紀,迄今仍日出而作。他種的原生種瓜口感特佳,因此每逢產季,老顧客早已預約一空。
新豐鄉特產西瓜,雖然產量不敵南部和東部,但甜度高、皮薄且肉質細緻,向來多為自產自銷。近年來新豐鄉人口老化,且因當地特產西瓜種植相當費工,瓜田已越來越少。
現年六十六歲的田朝龍,從十幾歲就跟著父親務農,目前在鳳坑村有四分地。他每年以西瓜、香瓜和水稻交替輪種,讓農地休養。田朝龍說,鳳坑村一帶的紅土土層厚、排水性佳,比較不怕下雨。
田朝龍栽種的紅肉大西瓜,為原生種無稼接,特別好吃;為了維護瓜田環境,他每天勤於拔草,瓜田幾乎看不到雜草;而在開花結果後,更定期疏果、淘汱不良品,因此每到產季,頂極瓜馬上就被老顧客預訂。
(自由時報記者廖雪茹)
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
It’s no secret that Japanese people have a deep affection for noodles. Like in the rest of East Asia, noodles are an important staple food, second only to rice. Japanese people have enjoyed noodles for over 1,000 years. The first noodles came from China and were introduced around 800 CE. As time passed, noodles in Japan not only became widespread but also developed some unique Japanese characteristics. The three most popular types of noodles in Japan are ramen, soba, and udon. Ramen, typically made from wheat flour, is usually thin and firm. The dough is kneaded and left to
Rice is an essential ingredient in Taiwanese cuisine. Many foods are made of rice, adding more variety to our cooking, such as rice cake, or “gui.” Wagui is made by steaming rice flour batter in a bowl. The term “gui” refers to a type of food made from rice, while “wa” refers to a bowl. The pronunciation of “gui” in Taiwanese Hokkien is similar to the word for “nobility” in Chinese, so it is common for people to prepare various types of gui, including wagui, as offerings to the gods or ancestors,. 米是台灣重要的主食,用米製成的食品十分多元,豐富我們的飲食,如米做成的「粿」。粿的意思是米做成的糕點,碗粿是將在來米漿倒入碗中蒸熟,因而得名。粿因為音同「貴」,因此碗粿等粿食常用作供品祭拜神明和祖先。 nobility (n.) 高貴,高尚;貴族 offering (n.) 供品 While Taiwan may not be
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