Sarah from Kaohsiung: My Workaway Experience at Toucheng 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.

My time at Toucheng Farm went by quickly. I felt good and healthy. It was a very worthwhile experience.