The North Country Gardener

Community Gardens--Taipei style

Community gardens are popping up in the small towns and villages across my home county of Addison, Vermont. This year there are six so far.  Last year there were just two!

Community gardens make use of spare land, such as outside a school or behind a business. The land is divided into plots (typically 20’ x 20’) which are leased, for a nominal price, to local families who use them to raise their own vegetables.

These days, all across America, the community garden concept is catching on like wildfire. People are discovering that growing vegetables can actually be a lot of fun. They are also discovering that food grown close to home really tastes better. As the bumper sticker I saw yesterday proclaimed ‘Locally grown food is thousands of miles fresher’!!

 In some parts of the world the idea of using spare land to grow vegetables has been around for centuries. Growing up England I remember very clearly what we called ‘allotments’. These English-style community gardens were squeezed into every available spot, such as in the triangle where two railway lines come together. And in Britain today, where people often have to ‘queue up’ to get an allotment, a lively social protocol has developed among young ‘allotmenters’. Check the blog  Horticultural for insights into modern-day ‘allotmentering’ in the UK.

 On our visit to Taiwan, a couple of years back now, we also saw allotments, this time Taipei-style. On the first morning as we recovered from our arduous 24-hour journey from Vermont to Taipei, Eleanor  dropped off Miles at his Chinese pre-school, and then took us up the THOUSAND STEPS... a steep trail of rocky steps running straight up into the hills above Taipei.

 First we passed a small park where elderly people were performing their early morning tai-chi ritual. As we climbed higher, we looked down to see the whole city laid out below us.

On either side of the trail, houses were built right into the hillside and, for some of these houses, their only connection with the outside world was via the steep path we now traveled.

And all along, wherever a flatish piece of land could be found, we encountered ALLOTMENTS, set cheek-by-jowl together. It was still early in the gardening year, so the first spring crops--including all kinds of Asian greens -- were just emerging.

And in some cases we saw not-so-flat land being terraced for new gardens too.

Like Japan, Taiwan is an island where much of the geography is taken up by a central swath of mountains. And even a casual observer to either country has to notice how every small piece of available land is pressed into service to grow FOOD. Perhaps it goes without saying, but in Island Nations, like Britain, Taiwan and Japan, since land is scarce, it becomes more highly valued and so better utilized.

Maybe, in America, as oil becomes less available, it will become economically non-viable to continue transporting all our vegetables from another coast, or even another country. Then perhaps we too will be motivated to extend today’s ‘community garden’ trend and convert some of the seemingly ‘waste land’ along our highways and railroads into productive ‘allotments’.

Calla lilies

One magical day, on March 18, 2007, exactly two years ago to the day, we went in search of the mysterious ‘calla lily valley’ high above Taipei. This is where farmers grow thousands of the pure white lilies for the Taipei market. Calla lilies originate from the southern half of Africa, but their message of elegance, simplicity and purity is universal.
We were visiting Dick’s daughter, Eleanor, who had been in Taiwan just six months. Aware of my obsession with all things botanical, Eleanor had planned several plant hunting adventures during our time with her.
That particular day, four of us, Eleanor and her three year old son Miles, Dick and myself, went looking for the ‘calla lily valley’. Since, out the four of us only Miles knew any Chinese (he attended a Chinese nursery school), asking for directions was a definite challenge. But following Eleanor, we boarded a bus which took us into the steep hills above their corner of the city.
We got out at a beautiful manicured park and spent a couple of misty hours hunting for calla lilies. The park was lush and mesmerizing...Stone steps leading to pavilions perched above mini-canyons...Azaleas and impatiens in bloom everywhere, but this small clump was the closest we came to finding calla lilies....

Finally our Search is Successful.....

So we found a second bus to take us higher into the hills, and went to the very end of its route. Here, taking a cue from our fellow travelers, we walked about half a mile up the road. Suddenly out of the mist, the valley opened up to reveal a patchwork of farms and little houses. Calla lilies thrive in a boggy setting and this entire valley seemed to be one large bog, all criss-crossed by stepping stone paths and drainage channels to remove excess water. It was intense and beautiful, and at the same time a little untidy... but every scrap of land was used....no waste!

It was an amazing sight to us westerners, and a salutary lesson in efficient land use. It reminded me of the English ‘allotments’, people growing vegetables on scraps of land adjacent to railroad tracks and the like. But here in America, where we squander our land like it has no end, I have never seen anything like it.

And Some Very Fresh Chicken Soup....

After two more hours walking the little paths between the lily beds the four of us were cold, hungry and not a little damp. Enticing smells emanated from one of the long plastic-covered hoop greenhouses. Inside we found three or four people preparing all sorts of food over portable propane burners, and about twenty tables for patrons, each warmed by its own burner. Since everyone there only spoke Chinese, sign language was our means of communication. However an English translation menu was quickly produced. We requested the chicken soup, along with some stir-fry vegetarian dishes and rice. The soup was delivered in its own big iron pot set over a propane burner, and I ladled out portions for the four of us. And then, there in the bottom of my soup bowl, I saw something I will never ever forget... a scaly, very fresh chicken foot, toes, claws and all. I cannot quite remember what happened after that. I think Dick put the foot back in the soup pot, but I know at that point I, for one, switched to the vegetarian stir-fry dishes.

After lunch, and another look at the amazing farming operation, the people who served us lunch were also able to find us a taxi. The bustling busy city Taipei was just a twenty minute ride down the steep hill, but in our minds it was a whole world away.