Besides leisure farms, there are other agriculture and leisure-related activities to discover in Taiwan, like how to make paper and smoked eggs.
Goang Horng Shing Handmade Paper in Puli, Nantou County in Tai Chung (Central Taiwan) is a workshop that specialises in traditional handmade paper .
It claims to use the same methods invented by Cai Lun in 105AD. Cai Lun, a Chinese eunuch, is regarded as the inventor of paper who improved on existing methods of paper-making .
The workshop prepares the fibre from trees by steaming, washing, bleaching and making them into a pulp. All visitors have to do is to collect the pulp with a rectangular bamboo tray, transfer the layer of pulp to a wooden board, squeeze the layer dry with a machine and toast it dry on a hot-iron surface.
You then place the dried paper on a metal block etched with patterns, and hit the paper hard with a brush. Next, dab black powder onto the paper to make the pattern noticeable. Then voila!, you can hang your handmade paper on the wall as decoration.
Over at the E Shan Tea Farm in Jhong Shan, Yi Lan County, Northeastern Taiwan, we tried our hands at making Smoked Eggs. While sipping tea and munching on peanuts, we let the hard-boiled eggs smoke over a medium fire in a wok lined with aluminum paper, dried tea leaves and sugar for 10 minutes.
If done correctly, the egg white would be a golden brown while the yolk remains creamy. What happened to our eggs, you ask? Well, we smoked them a little too long and they ended up having a slightly burnt smell.
Uniquely tasty, I would say!
This trip was sponsored and co-organised by Taiwan Leisure Farming Development Association and Apple Vacations & Conventions. For enquiries and reservations, call (03) 2141 8250.
