Fairfield Methodist Secondary School, Singapore

 

 Students built the clay kiln (a traditional oven) successfully after a hard try!

 

 

 

Wrote their wishes and prayers on a sky lantern and saw it flew up the dark sky!

 

 

 

 And here they are: the students and teachers of Fairfield Methodist Secondary  School of
Singapore. They stayed at Toucheng Leisure Farm for 2 days and one night.

Hello Summer!

Summer in Taiwan officially opens with the celebration of the Dragon Boat Festival, this year on
June 12.

Everyone is invited to eat a special food called chung dz.

Above are the ingredients used to make it.

 

Plus these wrappers and strings.

 

 

 

Looks delicious, right?

Remember the Alpinia zerumbet leaf?

It is wrapped in this kind of leaf because of its particular flavor! 

 

 

Molly can tell you, its delicious!

 

Now it is SUMMER !

Alpinia zerumbet

 This shell ginger flower is native of India. They have survived in Asia for quite sometime.

 

Its leaves can grow to 2 feet long and 6 inches wide.

At the Farm, we use its leaves to wrap the Chung dz, a delicacy eaten by the Chinese Community

during the Dragon Boat Festival celebrations.

 

Here is the flower of the Alpinia zerumbet which has an

aromatic scent when in bloom.

When the flower withers, its seeds would look like this.

 

And turn red to black after a few weeks.

 

Almost all parts of this plant has some medicinal properties.

Solanum melongena

Eggplant is a colorful flowering plant which is native to India but was

cultivated in Southern and Eastern Asia even before history came into the picture.

 

Eggplants we see are mostly dark purple, but do you know that there are other colors too,

like white, yellow, red, or green?

There are also rounded-shaped eggplants.

 

Botanically, it is considered a berry with edible numerous small and soft seeds.

They are related to tomatoes and potatoes and also tobacco because of their bitter taste due to its nicotinoid alkaloids contents..

 

 

 

 

 

 

And  they have attractive purple flowers.

 

These simple flowers and plants can change and beautify our environment but most of all they  give us strength

and energy physically! 

 

At Toucheng Leisure Farm we have all these amazing creatures come and share them with us!

Taipei European School, German Section

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Limnoharis flava

This yellow velvet leaf flower is an aquatic flowering plant native to

Southeast Asia.

 

 

It can grow up to 50 cm. tall in a swampy area.

 

 

In many areas of the world, its flower parts and leaves are eaten as vegetable.

 

 Look again at this plant with a tiny yellow flower. In Chinese it is called:

Huang hua lin.

Jump Start was here!

 Jump Start"s Chinese and English Teachers visited Toucheng Leisure Farm
for a day.
Here they are in front of the mud hut..

 

 

They printed their T-shirt using leaves of trees gathered in the Farm.

 

A bevy of beauties around the Farm animals area.

                                        And last but not the least, the prime movers of Jump Start!

Taipei European School, French Section

 Teachers and Students from Taipei European School stayed at Toucheng Leisure
Farm for 3 nights and 2 nights starting last May 15.

The 5 or 6 years old children belong to the Kindergarten Section - French
  Section of the said School.

 

 

 

 This is one of the places they love to play, and even took the bamboo raft

for a ride around the fish pond!

 

One of the Teachers, Sabrina played a real, alive and green praying mantis

found by the parking lot. Imagine the children's joy to touch an original insect!

 

 

 

Here are our wishes written on the sky lantern.

 

 

We crossed the river and played with stones and water on the other side.

 

 

 

We fed the goats and heared their song: Meii........ 

Can you see our dirty hands? We built some kiln

made of clay, DIY!

 

There so much water for washing anyway, and free!

From the eternal spring up the mountain, to the Farm's faucet.

 

We have more pictures, but too many to choose.

You have to visit Toucheng Leisure Farm to enjoy

the view!

                                                                            
                                                                    See you again next year!

Agapanthus africanus

This flowering plant is a native of South Africa. 

 

 

 

It blooms white or bright blue funnel-shaped flowers and they are in bloom this time at Toucheng

Leisure Farm. 

 
During summer, they need plenty of water and they thrive near lakes and running streams.

           This picture was just taken at the Farm, you can still see this lovely and attractive  flower in f ull bloom!

Fireflies

Can you see them? Who? or what are they?
They are fireflies, the mystic of the night.

 

 

 

 Fireflies are actually beetles and nocturnal which means, they only comes out at night

and there fly with their "fire".

 

 

How come they glow? A substance  in their abdomen known as luciferen produces light but no heat. 

 

 

Environmental Educators has said, that the  presence of fireflies

in an area is n indication of its cleanliness - not polluted! 

 
There are thousands of fireflies lighting the mountains around the Farm every night.
Make sure to catch them at 7:00 pm. but by 9:00 pm they go to "sleep"!

Welcome to  Toucheng Leisure Farm these days and watch them with us!