International Interns @ Toucheng Leisure Farm

In the second half of 2023, I had the unique "first-world problem" of having too much company leave to use: almost 30 days! Plus, I was occupied and burnt out from an extracurricular industry project that would only be complete end October, and didn't want to plan a month-long vacation.

Luckily, my sister shared with me that her friend Jessica had visited a lovely farm in Taiwan and worked there for three weeks. Happy that I didn't have to do more work to rest from work, I asked her more about it and decided to apply when she strongly recommended it.

It was a really lovely, restful and interesting way to spend my vacation! The pace of life is also very different from hectic Singapore, and my mediocre Chinese has never been better. Since returning home, I've received so many questions about what my life there was like, so I thought I would present my blogspot in a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) format.

What did you do on the farm?

My daily tasks ranged and I helped out at the actual farm, the kitchen, the souvenir shop, the office, and even at the DIY workshop.

Farm: Harvesting vegetables, seeding, weeding, harvesting roselle, plucking some type of citrus, planting sweet potato leaf plants
Kitchen: Trimming calamansi off their branches, making calamansi juice, helping to make tang yuan (ad hoc)
Shopping: Packing snacks for sale, especially when there were bulk purchases
Terrarium DIY: Helping out during workshops, translating instructions from Mandarin into English
Office: Translating webpages from Mandarin into English, writing up a submission for a prize, writing copy for promotional material

Harvesting various types of cabbage from the vegetable farm

Some kid guests who wanted to help us pack brown sugar cubes into packs

Community event (!) where guests also helped us trim the calamansi from the branches

Packing snacks into boxes for a bulk order

Harvesting citrus from an orchard, which were given to guests to take home

Translating Chinese craft instructions into English for a group of Taiwanese American guests

One of my favourite tasks was harvesting roselle, which I found relaxing

Every other day, we would go and check on how our sweet potato leaves were doing.

What is your salary? What are your hours like? Do you get time off?

There is no salary. I work in return for lodging and food. As a "working intern", I got access to food the whole day. Breakfast starts at 6am, snacks and small bites start at 10am, the guest buffet and lunch, with a BBQ when there are more guests. Tea and coffee are also provided. You really don’t have to spend money if you don't want to.

I reported to work every day at 8.30am and ended work at 5pm. There is a one-hour lunch break from 12-1pm. For every 5 days of work, you get 2 days off and you can let them know when you would like to take your rest days.

I tried this savory barley and pig intestine soup, which was one of the daily snacks available

No chance of losing weight when every meal offered so much variety, and was really fresh and tasty

What do you do when you were not working?

During the lunch break, I would sometimes take a walk along the river for 20-30 min. When I was there from mid-November to early Dec, it got dark by 5pm. If I didn't walk around the estate visiting the cows, feeding the goats, or checking out various areas, I spent early nights chatting with the other working intern Sarah or the staff, and then spent the remaining time reading fiction about Taiwan (Green Island) or watching Taiwanese Netflix shows (Gold Leaf).

The riverside is very nice walk and a way to spend lunch time, but I only discovered it in my last week!

On some nights, guests would make and set off sky lanterns, so you can participate in that too. Sometimes, the staff would also go to nearby night markets.

Guests setting off their night lanterns - it was really beautiful

Having lunch at the Green Kitchen, a multi-course, farm-to-table experience

Joining the farm tour with a very knowledgeable and personable guide (and dog)

On my days off, I went to the nearby towns. The first weekend I went to Toucheng town, the Lanyang Museum, and stayed overnight at Jiaoxi to enjoy the hot springs. The second weekend I went to Luodong, the National Centre for Traditional Arts, and stayed overnight at Yilan.

If I'm interested in working there, what should I bring?

A proper hat for farming that ideally covers your neck and face, long-sleeved shirts with UV protection, long pants with thick material, a raincoat, waterproof and hardy shoes, a water bottle, sunscreen, a bath towel, washing detergent, toiletries, sunglasses. If you need additional comfort: an extra pillow, bathroom slippers, a hairdryer, and insect repellant.

Who did you hang out with or talk to?

I was really lucky that my stint overlapped with Sarah, a Taiwanese working professional on a career break. For most of the first two weeks, I stuck with her like the typical introvert leeching off her extrovert energies and relationships (lol). On top of the full-time staff, most of whom are very warm and friendly, I also spoke with other young farming students from Thailand and Indonesia, as well as Singaporean tourists and other interesting guests, such as a monk from Nepal.

Having lunch with a monk from Nepal, who works as a tour guide

Some very nice Singaporean guests also gave me popcorn and a slice of the popular Taro cake from Yilan!

Chinese Indonesian students who were stationed at the DIY area and in-charge of the plants

What did you learn?

It's very physically tiring to work on a farm. I think a lot of Singaporeans (like myself!) have idealised rural farm life, but the first week I had to stretch every night because I was afraid I would wake up with a sore body.

The reality is also that young Taiwanese do not want to work on farms as a career, and scholarships are offered to overseas students who work for three months on the farm and then study for three months in a Taiwanese school. I asked what would happen to the calamansi if we were not around to harvest it: they would either allow guests to harvest it, or they would just have to let it go to waste.

There are also other realities such as demand and supply, especially since fresh vegetables and fruit go bad quickly. For example, the vegetables produced on the farm were insufficient when guest levels rose beyond a certain level, but when there were too few guests there was a problematic surplus of harvest as well.

That being said, I admired the zero-waste approach. After we harvested the calamansi, overly ripe ones were turned into juice, and green ones were made into fruit vinegar by guests. The seeds from the juice were given to the DIY department for their terrariums, while the skin was given to Zhuo Mama, who made it into a compote we had the next day at the Green Kitchen! The branches were then fed to the goats, who loved to eat the leaves and strip the outer lining from the branches. Remaining branches were then composted or made into fertiliser.

Making juice out of the overly ripe calamansi

Seeds were washed for the terrariums, and skins were set aside for a compote

I was really happy when the calamansi juice we made ourselves was served at dinnertime

Compared to a typical holiday, I found this way of slow travel and the mountain farm life very relaxing. People were easygoing and warm, and everyone was happy to share their knowledge be it about farming, making tangyuan or the best way to keep houseplants alive. It also felt more meaningful to get to know Taiwan slowly through understanding the place and people.

I hope to carry this warmth and generosity into my daily life in Singapore in 2024!

Ending the post with a picture of the beautiful deep red tea, made from the roselle in Toucheng Leisure Farm

In October 2023, I began my workaway motorcycling tour of Taiwan.

For my third stop, I stayed at Toucheng Farm for three weeks.
I spent most of my time working in the forest team.
On my first day, I helped out in the restaurant because of a sudden influx of group guests.
I met two Thai exchange students who were interning at the farm.
The two friendly and cute siblings taught me how to clean the tables and chairs in the restaurant.

During this time, I was also helping with the harvest of the kumquats.
I spent a lot of time getting to know the kumquats.
The days of picking kumquats were very interesting.
It was like a community interactive art.
When guests smelled the kumquat fragrance from afar, they couldn't help but ask if they could have two.
Some of them even helped us pick the kumquats.
We would naturally start talking and introduce ourselves.
I met many people from different walks of life during my time picking kumquats.
This was a world that I couldn't see when I was only focused on writing code in the office.

In addition to picking kumquats, the work in the forest team also included weeding, planting sweet potato leaves, chopping pearl vegetables, picking various oranges, and feeding goats.

I also met two Indonesian young farmers. They were very kind and hardworking, and they would also tell me to rest. It is always a pleasure to meet people from all over the world.

On some special days, Tina, the manager of the farm, would arrange various activities to help us get to know Toucheng Farm. The green kitchen activity was very interesting. We ate a lot of delicious green food. We also made micro-plant bottles at the green bar.

During my workaway stay, I met a Singaporean who was also working as a workawayer. We exchanged cultures and introduced each other to different foods. We had a lot of fun going out together on the weekends.

The food at the workaway was also worth mentioning. We had five meals a day, including breakfast, brunch, lunch, afternoon snack, and dinner. I gained 3 kilograms in three weeks, LOL.