ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY PLAYGROUND

Toucheng Leisure Farm focuses on protection of environment and passing its knowledge about nature to general public. We provide many educational and entertaining activities. Some of them explain the issue by theories, telling stories, showing examples and others explain the issue in ways that people don´t even realise that they are discovering real nature life! J

One of the others represent our „green“ playground, situated close to animal area! There is very funny place, slightly hidden under American nut trees! We used this kind of trees to build up this natural playgroud because they are suitable for making monkey bars. Their trunks are strong and without branches and their treetops are full of leaves, which let visitors have pleasant time in its shadows! We can call this playground as „life playground“, because trees are still growing! J  As you can see on the pictures below, we protect their trunks with rubber pieces and we always control tightening of ropes. When the tree grows and loop of the rope is too tigh, we just loosen it and don´t let it hurt the tree.

Children and also adults can enjoy a lot of fun in this area! It is a place where you can practise your stability, patience and also teamwork! J

Cross moving bridges without touching the sides

During your walks in Toucheng Leisure Farm you can also see different playground. It is colourful, looks like a small castle, but it is made of plastic and metal. Children would maybe prefer it, because they are accostumed to play in this conditions in their home cities. As we have already said, we are strongly for living environmentally friendly! Plastic materials definitely don´t fulfill this way of life so we are going to replace it with new natural playground soon and show children other possibilities to have fun! J This „life playground“ teaches them being nice to our environment and developes their imagination! J

We want let people smell nice smells of trees, soil, wood and let them stay in completely natural environment, touch only natural materials! All these factors make us relaxed and have very positive influence on our lives!  We invite everyone to Toucheng Leisure Farm to enjoy the nature! J

FIREFLIES 

Have you ever seen thousands of fireflies in the night? Toucheng Leisure Farm invites you to enjoy that mysterious sight!

This photo of fireflies was taken in our farm

Firefly is a very special kind of beatle that can light. It is interesting that fireflies don´t produce any heat as light bulbs do! This is very efficient and smart, 90% of produced energy is used for light! Male and female differ a lot. Females cannot fly, they live on the ground. Both of them eat snails. Fireflies are on one side dangerous and on the other side useful. Their blood can be poisonous for some animals, as snakes or lizards. But chemicals which they have in their tails can be used as a medicament in case of cancer or muscular dystrophy, etc.

Female and male

This is a female luring male by its light

We can observe them in the period from April to July every year. Fireflies live in a very clean environment! In Toucheng Leisure Farm live thousands of them every year, so it is a very natural and strong proof of the fact that our farm is surrounded by pure nature! J

Also eagles can be seen in the moutains around Toucheng Leisure Farm! We can watch them hunting snakes or small chickens. It is nothing cruel, it is just part of food chain, part of nature! These majestic birds wouldn´t survive in big cities, they need big open spaces, fresh air, and good nourishment! J

Toucheng Leisure Farm is proud of its healthy and clean environment. We do our best to preserve nature and in return we live in a very rich place and we can let people feel the power and energy of real nature! 

WE ARE ALL HEALTHY 

Living in pure nature, breathing fresh air, possibilities to stay in greenness, open space, eating self produced food and ingredients make people, animals and also plants healthy!

In Toucheng Leisure Farm we plant many kinds of herbs. In our herb garden you can find Perilla, Houttuynia cordata, RoseMary, Mint, Australian Fern Tree, Lemon Marigold, Sweet Basil or Lemongrass!  We don´t use any pesticides! All those herbs are accostumed to farm´s conditions and climate and are able to grow well without human´s intervention. We only put compost around herbs from time to time, which is made out from our water buffalo´s dung and fruit or vegetable peels. Each herb has its specific smell with grassy traces. That grassy traces are very important, they don´t attract insect and bugs so that herbs are not attacked. We don´t plant sweet vegetable, as cherry tomatoes or broccoli, because it would attract insect that could harm vegetable and could also increase the possibility of spreading plant diseases by new insect. Then we would be pushed to use chemical sprays what we are completely against! We better prefere to have healthy, clean and rich herbs! But it doesn´t mean that we don´t plant vegetable at all. J Continue reading.

We use herbs for preparing nourishing teas, which can all customers drink in front of our main building during their whole stay. Its taste is very nice and distinctive by itself, there is no need to add some ingredients (as sugar, honey, lemon, etc.).  Herbs are very often used in our kitchen and give nice taste to prepared meals! J

 Nourishing herb tea

 Our herb garden

Our herb garden

Some herbs have healing effects! It is of course possible to use them in case of health problems to cure us in a natural way! J

 White radish, carrot, sweet potatoes are representatives of sweet vegetable, but they grow under the ground, so there is no need to be affraid of bugs. It is same with pumpkins, loofah or melon, because these have thick peel. Bitter gourd or native vegetables (it is not possible to buy them in a supermarket, they grow localy and are eaten by local people) don´t attract insect because insect simply don´t like their taste. We carefully choose what we cultivate in our farm to protect all plants!

In other parts of our farm we also cultivate fruit! J Our visitors can taste a taste of real naturally produced passion fruits, kumquats, tangerines, pomelos, wax apples, bananas or papaya! The difference in taste is obvious! And we are happy that we can offer our customers such an experience!

As we were talking about healthy animals in the beginning of this article, we have to explain, why we said it. In our farm live fish, ducks, gooses, chickens, goats, pigs, water buffalos, turkeys and others! We feed them with farm´s grass or different fruits and we also give our pigs the rest which is left after our visitor´s breakfast/lunch/dinner. Because we are environmentally friendly! J We also buy cabbages to feed our animals because they are many and we are not able to produce sufficient amount for them.  But…Toucheng Leisure Farm peels quite a lot of layers of each cabbage before serving it to our animals to remove pieces which were possibly attacked by chemical spreys!

Our animals are due to their nutritious food healthy and happy. For example, our chickens are not fat (they get no hormon injections as in many battery farming), they are skiny and after some months :P tasty, because they live in greeness and open space! J

FEEL THE POWER OF  TEAM 

Toucheng Leisure Farm is very happy to provide you open space activities in nature! We built up new entertainment park where you can enjoy a lot of fun and mainly feel the power of a team!

People from cities are usually more closed to others, act individually, they are also more stressed and more susceptible to illnesses. It has been proved in many studies. The reasons are simple. We are human beings, we are part of Earth. The human race was born in nature and nature is our innate environment to live. Unfortunatelly,  with all technical and technological progress, it slowly becomes to be normal for new generations to live in artificial world, made by ourselves! But as we can see, living in concrete jungles, in big cities, where greenness and open spaces are missing, is not beneficial to us at all! People from big cities restrict personal contact with others, they live more in virtual world! They work in stressful conditions and don´t have time and possibilities to go out and run into open land and gain new energy!

One of Toucheng Leisure Farm´s goals is to support people in taking care of our nature, let them feel that amazing energy and all benefits that nature gives us! Other goal is to let people to know each other better, to play together, to explore together, to have fun together, to help each other!

This is our adrenaline activity! Everytime one couple goes up to the top, to the height of 10 meters! It is interesting to see what are people able to think up! J You have to help each other to get to the top! How? It depends on both of you, on your ability of cooperation! This activity really makes people´s relations stronger!

Just little imagination do great fun! There is a river going in our DIY section! J All members of your team  have to jump across the river safely! It is a hard job and needs a lot of teamwork! Feel the power of team!

3 wooden boxes are situated in our park, 2 groups of people on each side and 2 laths (one longer, one shorter, but none of those is long enough to connect two boxes). You have to think up the solution to change sides without touching the ground! Feel the power of team again! And then just run through a big open space, scream, jump, whatever you want or need and cannot do in the city! Greenness will make you relaxed in a very natural way!

Have you ever tried big jump? J Other adrenaline activity which you can experience in Toucheng Leisure Farm! Fly like a bird some hundreds of meters! You have to trust your team! It is very hard to trust someone nowadays, we know it, but this activity will show you the way the trust works! J

These were examples of 4 activities, which you can do in our park, but there are also many others! All of them make us more open, more tolerant and more friendly.

We are glad to see our visitors leaving Toucheng Leisure Farm with smile on their face and with respect to nature! J

OUR RIVER 

We, Toucheng Leisure Farm, are very happy and grateful for crystal clear mountain river which flows through our jungle and farm!

Gung Fan South river starts as a cold spring on the top of the hill. On its way down there are no people living, no touristic places and that is the reason why is its water so clean and fresh!

Surroundings of the river are very calm places where our customers come to relax and listen to beautiful sounds of the forest. They simply blent into pure nature!

We also enjoy a lot of fun in the water! Toucheng Leisure Farm provides entertaining activities for children as well as for adults! There are few very small tarns where we play games, swim and dive! J 

Have you ever tried river trekking? J

And what about unforgettable exerience of dining in the river? Imagine yourself comming to the river side in the jungle, seeing prepared wooden tables situated in the river water, which are full of delicious meals and drinks! You just come, sit down at the table and experience refreshing water on your legs! You look around and you feel like in a real paradise. Later you start eating all that tasty meat, healthy vegetable, juicy fruit and other delicacies and have fun with your family and friends!

River water is also used in Toucheng Leisure Farm for showering and restrooms, but of course, after treatment. It is a source of water for our lovely animals too! We are environmentally friendly! J

MAKE YOUR SWEET POTATOES ECOLOGICALLY!

Nowadays people in developed countries always use cookers (induction, gas), microwaves or ovens to prepare their meals. During that process people produce high consumption of energies! Water, gas or electricity become more expensive and its reserves are decreasing. Let´s have a look on traditional way of cooking, very ecological one. Perhaps we will need and use this knowledge in future.

Quick technique of making a kiln/ mud oven to cook sweet potatoes! 6 steps, see below!

Step 1

First of all we loosen the soil in the place where we want to have a kiln. Then we start to build strong base made of dried pieces of mud. It looks like a bridge. We only need some skilfulness and patience because our work is to find a way of putting mud pieces together and don´t let them fall!

Step 2

Completion of the construction. We make a semi-circle out of other mud pieces on the ground which is connected with the main „bridge“.  Afterwards we carefully build the top part of the oven. It is all about your effort and desire! It is really possible that the oven won´t fall down! J It is just amazing!

Step 3

We hollow space under the mud oven so that there is a place for fire and sweet potatoes.

Step 4

It is time to make a fire. Wood, paper and lighter are used. But you can also try to make a fire without a lighter! It is of course more difficult but also more entertaining! Use dried grass, small woody parts and blow up your fire! J 

Step 5

It is necessary to let fire heat up the oven (mud pieces) and the soil under the oven. It doesn´t take a long time!

Step 6

Now follows the last step- removing the fire and throwing sweet potatoes into prepared hole + demolishing the oven. Hot mud pieces fall down on potatoes and kiln them!

After few hours becomes a beautiful feeling of enjoying the taste of sweet potateos prepared just by yourself! J

DO YOU KNOW BLUE MAGPIE? 

Taiwanese national bird! Very special one because it is endemic kind of magpie and lives just in Taiwan and its mountains!

Taiwan Blue magpies choose for living very clean environment. That is a strong proof of the fact that Toucheng Leisure Farm is situated in pure nature where many Blue magpie´s families have its homes! J 

Guests can see a family of Blue Magpies having their breakfast at Toucheng Farm's open ground near our service centre everyday. Please see the link below to see how beautiful they are and they are truly part of TC farm family members. http://youtu.be/peeqjMHP0nc 

 

Blue Magpie´s family in Toucheng Leisure Farm

Blue Magpie is distinctive for its long colourful tail, it has yellow eyes, red bill and legs, black head and rest of its body has saturated blue colour with white marks! They can eat everything, from vegetable, fruit, meat, insect to seeds, but their most favourite food is papaya! In Toucheng Leisure Farm you can find many papaya trees in different places- planted by our grandmother. She spent a lot of money to buy all that papaya trees for Blue Magpies! Those papaya trees have no other usage, we don´t eat them, we plant them just for a simple purpose- to make our Blue Magpies happy! 

Papaya tree with its fruits

We live in harmony with these birds and we try to provide them the environment where they can live and be satisfied. Our reward is beautiful sight! Blue Magpies let us and our visitors watch their daily life from very short distance! They also let us observe their eggs and new members of their families (March-April), but during this period of time, we have to be careful! Blue Magpies are very good parents and protect their nests well. If they feel endangered, they become to be agressive! Due to this reason we should be respectful and give them serenity.

Mum feeds its new born Blue Magpies

Blue Magpies are not affraid of us or our visitors because we treat them nicely, we don´t catch them, we give them beautiful space for life! This is Toucheng Leisure Farm! J

WE LIVE IN HARMONY WITH OUR WATER BUFFALOS 

Water buffalo is domesticated and friendly kind of buffalo (it was first domesticated in India), it is very large (weights 400-900Kg) and strong animal, which gives us a lot! In Toucheng Leisure Farm we take care of 3 water buffalos. Those buffalos also help us to be environmentally friendly! J

Water buffalos like to live in a swampy sub/tropical areas or along the river shore, they are an excellent swimmers, which also like to dive! J We provide them their favourite environment, feed them with love  and in return for it they give us what we need.

Their dung has many environmentally friendly possibilities of usage! People from big cities maybe don´t know them and our mission is to pass our knowledge to everyone. Using a dung can sound wierd for the first moment but we will explain you all benefits!

Farmers back in ancient times knew how useful can be water buffalo´s dung. Dung can be simply used as a very rich organic fertiliser. We mix it with fruit or vegetable peel, grass, or other organic materials to make a compost. Afterwards we put compost under our trees or around vegetable or herb plants to make the soil richer and more healthy so that plants grow better!

Farmers were/are busy right in the early morning. They have to pick up the dung and treat it. Don´t be affraid, buffalo´s dung is not smelly because they are vegetarians and eat nearly just grass! J Farmers then continue to make different products form the dung!

Water buffalo´s dung was very needed in farm village and very often used to build walls, here in Toucheng Leisure Farm we also made a part of our mud house of dung as well as the notice board right next to the buffalo´s area! You can come and try to smell it! In fact it is possible to build a small house or a store house of the dung, using bamboos, to make it stronger! Otherwise, for smaller project, we mix just dung, chopped hey and water and produce appropriate substance/material.

We also make small rollers out of the dung, we dry them and then we fire them. The reason is very smart, its smoke and mainly odor repels insect! Toucheng Leisure Farm let our visitors try to make it by themselves and enrich their knowledge. They can see that dung is really useful, doesn´t smell so that it is nothing disgusting!

People in ancient times were poor and they needed some smoothy surface where they could dry rice. Again, water buffalo´s dung was used in this case! Farmers put the dung into a container, mixed it with quite a lot of water and crushed it and mixed it. The texture became more runny. Later they splashed it on the prepared and well cleaned part of their garden and let it become dry. When it was dried they splashed other layer and after the same process other layer. The result was perfectly smooth and clean surface! Of course that when the rain came the surface was destroyed, but they didn´t mind! They made it again and again and again…..this means being environmentally friendly! They didn´t use concrete, which lasts forewer! It also didn´t cost anything…just food for the buffalo (mainly grass=for free).

In the world are water buffalos also used for meat, milk, dairy products, skin, fuel and work, but not in Toucheng Leisure Farm. They became a part of our farm family so we treat them in a very nice way! J We had a female water buffalo in our farm in the beginning but later we decided to buy a male from one very old man from our region, who wasn´t able to take care of the buffalo anymore. We promised him that we´ll look after his buffalo very well. And so we do till nowadays! Our female buffalo and the male one have become a parents already and also became a married couple! 

Their „wedding“ was a small celebration but it touched all participants! J We try to encourage our visitors to be more open, to think more about things around them, be more friendly and helpful. Our buffalos live here in our farm happily and we help each other! Because we are all ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY! J

DEVELOP YOUR FANTASY

Taiwan is an island in a tropical zone and so typhoons come here during some seasons of the year. As we all know, typhoon is a whirlwind that brings strong wind and heavy rain and very often destroys all that stays in its way.  For example our tropical forest. 

Typhoon

Here in Toucheng Leisure Farm we collect broken parts of the trees and clean the forest to help it recover faster. Afterwards we use those broken parts of wood because we are environmentally friendly!

As you can see on the pictures below using broken pieces of wood is definitely not a boring activity!

We can make a natural hammocks from the branches so we have here, in Toucheng Leisure Farm, beautiful places to relax! Imagine yourself lying in woody hammock right next to the pond or in the forest…listening music or sounds coming from the jungle and swing calmly! J It is simply amazing and don´t worry, it is very pleasant and those branches don´t push or hurt your body!

Woody hammock

If you prefer a swing….no problem! J Touchen Leisure Farm knows how to make it too!

Cute woody swing!

It is very nice to make 100% natural flowerpots that function as a decoration of the house or garden!

Our visitors or staff show their creativity by making different kinds of woody creatures, animals or  whatever they like! 

 Clever owl

 Fast dragonfly

Penguin family

They enjoy a lot of fun and spend very nice time with friends or families. This activity also helps to develop comunication abilities, being tolerant and friendly, which are important characteristics to live happily! Their „homemade products“ are very useful! They make the environment amusing, joyful and very cozy place! They can also support children´s fantasy and serve as toys! J

 Another dragonflies sitting on our woody notice board! No plastics or metals... purely natural!

 Hello! I´d like to be your friend! J 

  Pigs or bears? J

                         As in winter time..

 Our animals can inspire you to think up a lot of new ideas!

J Dear visitors, WELCOME !! J 

Living GREEN  

Toucheng Leisure Farm protects human´s biggest treasure- our environment and shows the way of ecological living.

Toucheng Leisure Farm inspires people who are keen for environmentally friendly life but also educates all other visitors in friendly behaviour to our environment.

Toucheng Leisure Farm´s mud house

In our farm you can see, touch and try life in a completely ecological mud house and feel all the diferences from houses or flats in big cities. Our purpose is to give our visitors insight into history and mainly to discover the wisdom and smartness of ancient people from whose we can learn the most in being environmentally friendly nowadays! Toucheng Leisure Farm gives our visitors new and usefull ideas by which they can make their life better and more Eco!  

Building and living in mud houses brings people and also our environment many positives.

·   > No chemicals or artificial materials are used during building process, just pure natural materials as stones, loam, water, grass, wood, bamboo

·   > Mud house has thick walls which allow to hold pleasant temperature inside the house in summer as well as in winter, there is no need of air-conditioning or heater, it saves a lot of energy and produces no pollution, thick walls also prevent the house against wind

·   > Roof is made of dried grass, to make the roof there are used many layers of precisely tied grass, this kind of roof is waterproof but on the other side can permeate cooking fumes out of the house

To build high quality mud house we have to follow some rules. First is to make a proper stone base (about 50cm high) to prevent collapse and also wet, because the lowest layer is the most wet-prone. 

Can you see the stone base?

Afterwards it is possible to start building walls. We have to be patient and continue slowly step by step, part by part. Meterials used in building walls are mud, water, hey and bamboo. Those materials are widely accessible and cost nearly nothing. All must be well trampled down and construction workers always controll the condition of the wall, they moisturize it if it is necessary. Because the wall would also collapse, if the mud is too dry. To build higher layer they use bamboos what is very environmentally friendly and smart. Builders must be patient, careful and must give the wall time to settle down.

 Builder tramples down mud with hey

 Going step by step...

...part by part

Later they roof the house. Only wood, bamboo and grass are used. To tie bamboos one to another we use peeled parts of a special plant from the jungle (rattan), which has perfect characteristics. It is long, strong and long-life.

Preparing bamboo base

 It is important to fix tied dried grass very well

 There are hundreds of layers one next to another

There exist a lot of important details to build the mud house successfully. If you are interested, come to Toucheng Leisure Farm and learn more! Enjoy staying in a super green house!

Kitchen's wall and firewoods.

bed inside the hut.

kitchen walls outside view.

kitchen's inside view.