Agricultural tourism expert guide, Founder of Aitsao Farmer (艾草之家), Mr. Zheng-Hui Lee

Q: Aitsao Farmer is the first ecological and educational park featuring wormwood in Taiwan. What is the founding story?
A: A veteran soldier, Mr. Lee participated in Wandervogel Program (漂鳥計畫) to return his home county as a farmer, dedicated to grow the wormwoods. Recently, he invests in biotechnology filed, and the products are quite popular. The implementation of 2-day weekend has driven up the recreational atmosphere, so we set up the ecological and educational wormwood farm to welcome more people to experience wormwoods in our park.
Q: The common impression on wormwoods could be that wormwoods and calamus are placed at the door gate to dispel the evil spirits. Could you please introduce more information on wormwoods?
A: Wormwoods are resilient that they can grow in sand land, river bank, and high mountains. It has great grip to maintain water and soil. Meanwhile, it can drive out bugs and mosquitoes. It is also good to be pot cultures as a sight at home to enjoy. Wormwoods can be made for wormwood noodles, wormwood mocha, wormwood tea, and various foods, or detergent products and beauty care products. In addition, we have “Aitsao Village (艾馨園)” that has got Tianmama Restaurant certification (田媽媽餐廳認證) to incorporate the local seasonal food materials for delicious and healthy cuisine.
Q: What experiential activities Aitsao Farmer offers? And what are the most popular?
A: We provide activities to make wormwood tangyuan, wormwood mosquito-repellent incense, wormwood grains, wormwood safety sachet, and wormwood pot culture. “Wormwood grains (艾的穀粒)” is especially culturally meaningful, easy to make and for both the old and young.
1. We will provide a glass bottle tied up with a Chinese knot. Chinese knot is the symbol of auspicious. The Glass bottle represents safety.
2. Participants put wormwood leaves or seeds (which means avoiding evil spirits) and grains (which symbolizes plentiful harvest) into glass bottles.
3. Then cork bottles, and paste stickers with the words “Wormwood Grains” on them.