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.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
RSS