NCKU 1971 FLLD-DC Reunion: Lotus Patch Farm Expedition 蓮花園農場考察遠征記

Lotus Patch Farm Expedition 蓮花園農場考察遠征記 – 10/18/2015 9:00 a.m.

Preface - Lotus Patch Farm Story

Once upon a time, there lived a girl in Taipei’s Ximenting (西門町) – the trendsetting center of the business hub during the Japanese ruling era, next to a movie theater (美都麗戲院.) She studied as hard she could from elementary, junior and senior high schools all the way to National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, Taiwan. There she met a young man from Engineering Science Department one year her senior, who grew up from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, a prosperous city in the southern part of Taiwan.

She has a dream to own the big land to farm one day even though she thinks she knows nothing about farming. But….

They wasted no time to study in U.S; settled in Dallas, Texas. After years of graduate schools and work with dedication, diligence, and perseverance, they have a happy family with two distinguished children, a doctor, and a biostatistician; Wen Sheng a professor at UT-Arlington, and Yaung Hwa an accountant.

But, they do not want to have a content life with the attitude of complacency. That kind of reasoning only makes sense, they start to think outside the box, do the homework, infuse the life with action, and take advantage of the cheap and big land in Weatherford, Texas. The most important is Yaung Hwa’s sharp business acumen skills and solid foundation laid from undergraduate - NCKU and graduate school – Purdue University.

So Wen Sheng, a thinker, a scholar and Yaung Hwa, a doer and a farmer become the success story of a model minority at Dallas, Texas.

The Moral:

1. Rise early (Time is Money. Early bird gets the worm).

2. Work hard (Develop business & managerial skills, NCKU’s mantra - trains the students to learn, read and think),

3. Finally you will strike oil and plough to reap your reward in Dallas, Texas as if we have seen the movie “How the West Was Won -《西部開拓史》” in Dallas Version.

天時, 地利, 人和

This is a story of “right timing, good geographical location and favorable social condition.”

See Wen Sheng’s detailed schedule planning for today.

Farm Expedition (10/18/2015 9:00 a.m.)

Oct. 18 (Sunday)-Visit Lotus Patch (Chan’s farm) and Stockyard at Cow Town, Fort Worth

8:45 am-9:00 am: Gather at the Chan’s house (on the way to the farm) 9:00 am-9:15 am : Leave for the farm, Weatherford, TX. (A detail map will be provided.)

10:00 am-10:30 am: Arrive at the farm.

10:30 am-12:00 pm: Walk around the farm.

Ben/Janice Chang, Joseph Hsu (Ben’s Nephew), Mrs. Shinyee Chang (Janice’s friend) P.Y. and Sue Shih and Frank Cheng and Mrs. Cheng (P.Y.’s friend)

Chih-Cheng and Hung-Hwey Ma from Austin, Texas.

Te-Lin Yao and his wife come with the Chan’s car.

12:00 pm: Simple lunch will be served at the farm

1:30 pm: Leave the farm for Stockyard at Fort Worth (take around 45-50 minutes)

Group Photo Before the Expedition

With great anticipation and excitement, 12 NCKU alumni team, plus and minus the photographer (Frank 鄭明泰 66 accounting - 會統) and (許瑞昌 Joseph, Ben’s cousin, 86 Electrical Engineering - 電機) left the “Moments in Time” smiles in front of Wen Sheng and Yaung Hwa’s house. Chih-Cheng and Hung- Hwey driving all the way from Austin, Texas would meet us 10:30 a.m. at the farm.

Off We Go, To The Farm

Three carloads, with the most capable and responsible drivers, Yaung Hwa, our hostess, and Pen Yuan and Joseph, were on the way to our destination. Ben and I had the privilege of Wen Sheng, the host to be the navigator in Joseph’s car. Coming from Washington D. C. with the horror of notorious traffic congestions, I was looking for the open road and easy ride in this BIG TEXAS. No, it’s not any better at all. I was surprised! I think the urban sprawling from the economic growth between Dallas and Fort Worth where I saw on the airplane was the major reason.

It’s about 55 miles ride to the farm. “How did Yaung Hwa manage the 2+ hours drive to and from each day?” I asked Wen Sheng. He responded, “She waited out until the rush hour was over around 9:00 a.m.” It’s still a long commute though. A strong sign of resolute determination, I gave her a big star! *

Parker County Courthouse, Weatherford, Texas

On highways leaving their house, Colleyville, we travelled westward on I-820, I-30, I-20 passing Fort Worth. I saw the busy highway patterns with multiple levels of overpasses and cloverleaf like interchange with cars weaving through different directions. We became the tiny moving ants from the pictures that Ben took on the plane a few days ago. We exited to state highway 180, the stately historical building, Parker County Courthouse was in front of us. We were in Weatherford already. The white Texas limestone and the rose pink granite clock towers and roofs on the top made a striking contrast. It’s a beautiful architectural design.

Her Dream Became True

According to Wen Sheng, “Yaung Hwa made her name known here in the Parker County Courthouse as the only Asian Farmer from Taiwan.” The friendly Yaung Hwa is a constant fixture in the predominately white farmers in Weatherford. She has been in and out of this building, processing the deed, the title, the taxes, the zoning and the application of Texas soil conservation and farm development project, etc., for the past 25 years since the purchase in 1990.

This grand and imposing building seemed to declare that Lotus Patch Farm was approaching and waiting to be celebrated with the arrival of group National Cheng Kung University alumni, Wen Sheng’s Engineering Science '69 classmates especially (成大工科系畢業46年同學.)

We stayed on the paved narrow country road Hwy 920, and 180 - a typical of connecting to the rural and agricultural areas for about 5 minutes. The scenery changed to the open field with tall hedges, under bushes, and variety of indigenous tress and shrubs. “Wow, was this way used to be before the farm became the working farm today?” I raised the question to Wen Sheng. “Yes, it was!” He replied. The visible signs of so many blue oil drums served as a landmark for their farm boundary came into view. Another big checks to both of them here! **

Big Gate

Yaung Hwa, the founder, and owner of Lotus Patch Farm proudly opened the big iron-gate for us after she punched the secret code – interesting, the mechanical gadget?

The Big Iron-Gate off the country road

2nd Iron-gate leads to the 2nd big pond

I will let the pictures tell Chan’s Lotus Patch Farm Story

The big farm is 178 acres. A panoramic view with our eyes as far as we could stretch from the front gate, we only saw many blue oil-drums used as the boundary line. A lonely longhorn cattle from the next-door neighbor greeted us with the sleepy eyes.

Farm Safari ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) Ride

Yaung Hwa got her ATV ready to start our expedition in two groups before we had the chance to explore their 6 acres family dwelling compound.

Wise Investment - Bermuda Hay Farm

128 acres of pastures

“Once you till the land and put down your first root of Bermuda grass, you become a part of the land forever.” It’s true, besides the machine took over the major shares of planting the grass roots, certain part of the land which was on steep slops, Yaung Hwa planted her Bermuda root one at a time. I said, “She is really a bit of real “down to earth” to her Baby Grass.” She shared with me, “Bermuda is a tough stand of grass, plant roots deep and it’s long-lasting.”

Green Cylindrical Tank

Natural Gas was found here before they purchased the land. The tank indicates that both Wen Sheng and Yaung Hwa are the landowners with royalty shares from the Gas Company.

It's in the far ground

The thrill of riding Yaung Hwa’s ATV over the vast countryside and open meadows was beyond description. Every changing scenery from the straight lines of large round bales of hays left in the open to the native trees reminded me of Acacia trees of Africa. Each of the bale weighs ½ ton (1,000 lbs). The average harvest per year is 200 bales – 400 bales for 2-3 times pending on the rainfalls.

Custom Modular Home – The Family Compound (6 Acres)

It’s an idyllic setting with a 4-bedroom modular home tucked in the grove of Texas live-oak and oak trees. The 40 acres of peaceful wooded land was around the perimeter. Some of the areas were used for mushroom (shiitake) farming.

Wen Sheng Explained the Mushroom Farming

A Farmer with Far-reaching Vision

I understand that Yaung Hwa has envisioned a farm should be diversified with multiple crops, plant rotation, livestock, animals, trees and vegetables to improve the soils and benefit other habitats. How she was able to cut each log from the farm to keep in the shaded area for mushroom growing was as intriguing as what I would like to know about the way she operates this big hay farm?

The Bambi Family

Hammock outside the den

Frank relaxing on the hammock

Family Room &Kitchen

Party in the Living room

Kitchen

Living room with two Dummy Mr. & Mrs. Farmer safeguard the house at night.

From an Accountant to a Farmer

The family-plot surrounds the house has variety of vegetables and herbs from everything you can name from the garden book. The following are October crops.

Vegetable Crops in October

Tomato (蕃茄)

Migrant worker, Shinyee picking eggplants (茄子)

Yaung & Sugar-baby Watermelon (小玉西瓜)

Yaung Hwa picking asparagus (蘆筍) on a raised garden-bed

The group of migrant workers ransacked the vegetable garden picking yard-long beans (菜豆)

Vegetables Planted in 2015

Harvest is a time of joy! The following crops were already harvested before we came.

Japanese cucumber (日本小黃瓜), okra (黃秋葵), peppers (青椒), basil (紫蘇), basil (九層塔), coriander (芫荽), Taiwanese yellow melons (台灣黃香瓜), Taiwanese Mino melon (台灣美濃瓜), cantaloupe (哈蜜瓜), bitter gourd (苦瓜), squash (菜瓜), taro (芋頭), Arugula (芝麻菜), Dill (蒔蘿), peanuts (花生), cedar (香椿), A vegetables (A菜), onion (香蔥), garlic (蒜)

Fruits Harvested in October

Migrant Worker - Shinyee Picking Persimmons (柿子)

Figs (無花果) – Rae shared a love-fruit with her husband, Te-Lin

Aquaponics plants (水生植物) – currently, it’s a new experiment for Yaung Hwa

Jujube Tree (紅棗)– A bag of goodie-bag of home-made dry Red Jujube fruits was given from Chan’s family to take home.
Mushroom farm – Shiitake (香菇)

Fruit Trees at the Farm

The harvest time for the followings are rather short. We missed it in October.

white peach (白桃) yellow peach (黄桃), red plum (红梅), purple plum (紫梅), apricot (杏子), apple (蘋果), Asian pear (水梨), 20 century pear (20世紀梨), pomegranate (石榴), cooking pear (煮梨), table grape (鮮食葡萄)

Nut Trees

Pecan (胡桃), Almond (杏仁), Chinese Chestnuts (栗子)

Janice picking up Pecan (胡桃)

The Livestock Raised Now

Geese (鵝) and ducks (鴨)

The Livestock Raised Before

Hereford cows (raised for meat) (赫里福德牛), Spanish Goats (西班牙山羊), Mohair Goats (馬海毛山羊), Nubian Goats (努比亞山羊)

Underground Water System

The old Indian well and a new automatic 2,500-gallon water tank behind the wooden board saved all the rainwater as well served as the main source for the whole farm – hays, livestock, trees and vegetables. – Look at Te-Lin’s close inspection for that big machine pump – You can tell he was from NCKU Engineering Science Department 46 years ago.

Lily Ponds – 4 Acres

A charming lily pond built close to the family compound offers both ducks and geese, the waterfowls the place to swim. The beautiful water lily and lily pads were planted before, but with those hungry waterfowls eating them, I think both Wen Sheng and Yaung Hwa will figure out something else.

The 2^nd pond larger than this lily pond was built further out in the farm. Without this useful ATV, I doubted I would ever see this beautiful pond! You looked out and saw the calm water with an occasional ripple – no ducks, geese! It’s so serene, inviting and welcoming. I think this is their plan to put the aerating fountain, gold fish, koi and other pond fish here. I imagine both of them will see that the beauty of Lotus Patch Farm is mirrored in this 2^nd pond!

Look at the wooden-board walkway with the lovely gazebo overlooking the shimmering water. I am picturing that both Wen Sheng and Yaung Hwa will spend the time together one day right here listening to Beethoven’s symphony #6 (Pastoral) -《田園交響曲》surrounded by the natural beauty from their Lotus Patch Farm.

The walkway with the gazebo is behind the live-oak tree

Epilogue

Yaung Hwa told me at the 2^nd pond when I was picking jujube fruit, “I never have time to think about I’m getting old.” I know this story is about a brave and powerful woman whom I admire greatly.

It’s certain that by this stage of my life, the desire to try new things is ever strong. In spite of my anxious request to ask Yaung Hwa to lease a small parcel of land for me to be a full-time farmer like her for a short time; Shinyee surprisingly shot me back with the remark, “The Texas red ants will eat you alive.” Look at the ants and Shinyee’s removing the stubborn splinters in my foot! “…And where do you get your rehab doctor with your lumbar 4 issues- back spinal pains?” Oh, well, Yaung Hwa probably approached my request more with humorous joke than with serious intention.