The characteristics of an organic farm is to grow vegetables, and fruit naturally without using fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides. With a tropical-like weather in Taiwan, insisting on not using herbicides or pesticides, one needs to know how to get along with weeds and insects. Organic farmers will tell you that actually weeds are not too bad at all. Weeds only grow few months a season; after they die, they provide fertilizer-like nutrients to the plant. Worms will damage part of the crops but the damage will reach a limit and final state will reach an equilibrium. The attached photos show spider, and worm taken from Mr. Hung's organic farm at Ko-Shing village of Nan-Tou.
Did I also mention about snake in the title of this note? Yes, that refers to the snake skin I saw at Mr. Liaw's organic farm at Tung-Shu. The tale says one day a 5-ft long python glided by the side of Mr. Liaw's mountain house. Being a martial art-trained farmer, he caught the snake with a tool. Later, he killed the python and peeled the snake skin and displayed the skin outside of his house. The message is that if you want to be a farmer in the mountain, you also need to know how to catch the python. (This message is for one of my students who doesn't want to be a chemical engineer, but a farmer.)
I also have messages for my American friends. Americans take great care on their lawns. Some of their lawns are carpet-like. But, it pays a price greatly. Not only it requires labor, it also needs chemicals such as fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides which are applied to the lawn frequently. I wish they have opportunities to visit organic farms so that they can say to themselves that it is perfectly OK to have weeds in the lawn.
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