Pingtung Djulis Story House opened on Monday featuring the traditional Aboriginal crop.
Ruby-colored djulis, the Paiwan name of a grain also known as red quinoa, was once grown extensively in southern Taiwan by Aborigines, but was largely replaced by other crops such as rice.
In the past few years, people have started regaining interest in djulis after the grain was found to be a good source of antioxidants.
The type grown by Aborigines in Pingtung County has been named “Formosan quinoa” by a red quinoa research team headed by Tsai Pi-jen (蔡碧仁), a professor of food science at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology.
The team has found that Formosan quinoa has a higher nutritional value than other grains, including rice and millet.
Formosan quinoa is 14.4 percent protein, not too far from beef’s 19.6 percent, and it has 50 times as much calcium as rice, 2.3 times the magnesium and 12 times the potassium in oats, the team said.
Centenarian Sawdhali, a Paiwan, was invited to partake in the opening of the story house.
Chang Chih-yun (張誌紜), Sawdhali’s granddaughter, said she grew up watching her grandmother plant the crop.
After reading the research about Formosan quinoa’s high nutritional value and seeing increased demand for it, Chang, 37, resigned from her position as a physical therapist at a hospital she had held for the past 17 years to keep a promise to her grandmother to cultivate Formosan quinoa on family land in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門).
Her family has more than 10 hectares of Formosan quinoa fields in Pingtung’s Sandimen, Majia (瑪家) and Changji (長治) townships, she said.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
RSS