All for love
Before dusk, we ride along County Road 145 and turn into a small roadway running between the fields to pay a visit. The warmly hospitable Liao Rui Sheng is the owner of Huaxing Organic Farm, where he grows vegetables in polytunnels, and also the leader of Team 47 of the Xiluo Vegetable Production and Marketing Group. Liao has built a pesticide residue testing lab above his own warehouse that tests samples from each batch of vegetables, and reports the results to the government. Asked why he does this, Liao replies without hesitation: “I’m a Yunlin native and I love everything about Yunlin. If we don’t develop organic farming methods, but instead use toxic pesticides, what will become of the soil? What will become of the water? What will become of my hometown?”
Liao’s persistence has paid off, and the organic farms that he and Team 47 work with have been selected as ingredient suppliers for school meals for elementary and middle schools in Taiwan’s six special municipalities. “These are vegetables grown with love, and I only hope that everyone can eat healthily.”
Xiluo is the final stop on our bicycle journey. This township is known as “the hometown of soy sauce.”
We are drawn to Yu-Ding-Shing, an old-established firm famous for its “wood-fired black soybean sauce.” Brothers Ozzy Hsieh and Hsieh Yi-che, grandsons of the founder, still insist on making the sauce by hand. Building on their love for traditional soy sauce and the aesthetic appeal of its brewing process, the two are forging a new path by promoting Yu-Ding-Shing to the international market, selling their products in New York. They are also using creative cuisine and shared group meals to practically demonstrate the diverse palette of flavors that can be achieved by pairing Yu-Ding-Shing soy sauce with different ingredients.
The two brothers are in the yard opening up a vat, and nearby bees forsake their flowers and follow the aroma to circle around the mouth of the container. Hsieh Yi-che says with a laugh: “It’s like this whenever we open a vat.” The large old-fashioned ceramic vats that fill the yard are divided between various brewing methods, including “dry style” and “half salt water style.” Ozzy Hsieh lights a wood fire in a traditional stove, judging and controlling the temperature based on experience, then steadily stirs the soy sauce in a pan, using a large steel ladle that is longer than he is tall and takes two hands to hold steady. As the sauce heats up, its beautiful fragrance fills the air all around.
The rich aroma of soy sauce accompanies us as we leave, providing a perfect ending to our journey. This carefree, leisurely bicycle trip, taking in farm fields and cultural sites, has been like an artist’s brush, painting a beautiful, colorful map of Yunlin while riding through the plain and experiencing the simplicity, culture, history, human warmth, and flavors of this agricultural county.
This Japanese-era government administration building was the town hall, police station, and fire station all rolled into one. Its fire watch tower was the tallest structure in Huwei at the time and commanded a view of the whole town.
The Huwei Salon is located in a “Western-style” house built by a Taiwanese. The building, with its traditional Japanese-style roof, is an “imperial crown” style structure that was very avant-garde at the time when it was built.
Liou Chen-chi (left) believes that the most meaningful way to treat Japanese-era buildings is to inject new life into them, as Tang Li-fang (right) has done with the arts and cultural activities she hosts at the Yunlin Storyhouse.
Liao Rui Sheng, who insists on organic farming methods out of his deep attachment to the land of Yunlin, still goes to his polytunnels each day to personally check on the vegetables that he cultivates with love.
The Hsieh brothers, third-generation owners of Yu-Ding-Shing, which makes wood-fired black soybean sauce, have used creative marketing and group meals to build a brand identity around the aesthetics of this traditional product, enabling Yu-Ding-Shing to stand out from the crowd of older soy sauce brands.