The secret to growing a 14.7kg cabbage? Serenade your sprouts daily — that is, according to a group of green-fingered amateurs from Kaohsiung First Community University.
The giant vegetable — 10 times the size of an average cabbage — was grown by a group of 52 novice farmers at the community college who had spent the past year learning from scratch how to grow vegetables.
At a fundraiser on Saturday where the group displayed and sold the fruits of their labors for charity, members of the club said that singing and playing music to their patch of tomatoes, pumpkins, green peppers and cabbages had been key to the bountiful harvest.
Photo: CNA
Club head Yu Shu-yen (游淑燕) told reporters that each member of the club had been assigned a plot of land measuring 20 ping (66m2) to farm after completing 18 lessons on soil, water control, plant diseases and pests, plant selection, and ways to grow vegetables and fruits.
Club members cultivated their crops without using pesticides or chemical fertilizers.
Yu said they played music and sang their favorite songs to the vegetables every day to help them “grow up healthily.”
Speaking of the 14.7kg cabbage that stole the show at Saturday’s event, Yu said that certain species of cabbage normally take four to five months to mature, but this one had been harvested only four months after it was planted.
The cabbage could have grown bigger if it had not been harvested for the charity event, with Yu attributing the size of the vegetable to the “friendly farmland” on which it grew.
“It is the reward for the club’s long-term dedication to the promotion of non-toxic agriculture,” Yu said, adding that the approach protected plants from pollution.
The first global hotel Keys Selection by the Michelin Guide includes four hotels in Taiwan, Michelin announced yesterday. All four received the “Michelin One Key,” indicating guests are to experience a “very special stay” at any of the locations as the establishments are “a true gem with personality. Service always goes the extra mile, and the hotel provides much more than others in its price range.” Of the four hotels, three are located in Taipei and one in Taichung. In Taipei, the One Key accolades were awarded to the Capella Taipei, Kimpton Da An Taipei and Mandarin Oriental Taipei. Capella Taipei was described by
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
INDUSTRY: Beijing’s latest export measures go beyond targeting the US and would likely affect any country that uses Chinese rare earths or related tech, an academic said Taiwanese industries could face significant disruption from China’s newly tightened export controls on rare earth elements, as much of Taiwan’s supply indirectly depends on Chinese materials processed in Japan, a local expert said yesterday. Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈), director of the Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, said that China’s latest export measures go far beyond targeting the US and would likely affect any country that uses Chinese rare earths or related technologies. With Japan and Southeast Asian countries among those expected to be hit, Taiwan could feel the impact through its reliance on Japanese-made semi-finished products and
RSS