Agricultural tourism expert guide, Tea and Rice Resort, Dongshan Farmers’ Association, Zi-Qiao Dai

Q: Nowadays it is easy for people to have rice, and we can see packaged rice in malls and stores. But few of us know the process of making rice in the husk into white rice, could you please tell us?
A: The harvested rice in the husk will need drying and storage in low temperature before “rice milling” that produces the white rice we usually see. There are 3 steps, controlled by computers nowadays, in milling.
◆Step 1: Use “Stone Ridder” to rid the stones in the rice in the husk.
◆Step 2: Use the rolling wheels of the “Rice Huller” to press and rid the first layer, chaff, and get the brown rice.
◆Step 3: Use “Rice Miller” to rid the second layer, rice bran. We get the white rice when the step is finished.
Q: In the experiential activities, one is “ Husked Rice Robot- Rice Milling Fun”, tourists can understand the milling process and make the gradually rare seen “Pop Rice”. Can you tell us why you designed the activity?
A: Kids nowadays are influenced by the consumption culture and introduced information, most of them know the western popcorn but don’t know local traditional food “pop rice”. We hope people can taste the various rice foods and its original flavor; therefore, we plan the pop-rice experience which not only passes down the good tastes but also creates a childhood memory that used to be seen in the older times when “kids bringing the white rice, waiting in line for the POP sound made by the pop-rice machine”, so to make the parents and children or families have more emotional bonding through this event.
Q: How to participate in the DIY activities held by Tea and Rice Resort?
A: Due to the quantity constraint, we open “Husked Rice Robot- Rice Milling Fun” activity to families or groups of more than 10 people. We also have Mushroom Ecology Bottle DIY (菇的生態瓶DIY) and Colored Rice Roll DIY (五色米飯糰創意DIY) activities and welcome tourists make calls for reservations.