HAO JING JHUANG

Farming after retirement, father and son join hands to produce high-quality tea seed oil

Located in Emei Township, Hsinchu, HAO JING JHUANG is inside a small road on the right side of the arched entrance to Shitoushan Scenic Area. You will have to drive carefully and avoid hitting oncoming cars as the rural road is very narrow. Because the address only indicates No.26-16, Lin 1, Huguang Village, you will have to watch out for signs on the side of the road when using your navigation system.

Introduction

Before reaching HAO JING JHUANG, you will have to drive along a winding rural road, making you question if there is any road ahead, if it is possible to reverse your car and if your car will ever get out. But when you arrive at the deepest hollow of the mountains, you will see a completely unexpected paradise. Surrounded by fruit trees, it has a fish pond in the middle and a large camping ground beside it. While picking tea seeds one at a time and listening to the story of tea seed oil, you will find out that 10kg of tea seeds will weigh only 4kg after sun-drying and only 1kg of tea seed oil will be pressed out from it ultimately. As if this does not tell you how precious tea seed oil is, you will then be astounded to learn that it takes five years for a tea tree to bear fruits.

The process of DIY cold-pressing begins a lot like making ground tea. Sundried tea seeds have to be pounded to deshell them and then pounded again before steaming at high temperature. Steamed seeds are then placed in a small cold-press machine and pure physical force has to be employed to rotate a lever to press out the oil. After using every ounce of your muscle, you will appreciate how precious the golden yellow liquid is when it slowly drips down. Because there is no light pollution at the camp site next to HAO JING JHUANG, it is ideal for stargazing at night. It also features diverse flora and fauna because no pesticide is used in its farming. During firefly season in April, you will see little sparks of light over the grass field and starlight in the sky overhead.

Features of Agricultural Tourism

Grains

The land which now stands HAO JING JHUANG is an ancestral estate in Chang’s family. Previously serving the nation as a career military policeman for years and then later working at a paper mill, a retired Chang returned to the abandoned ancestral estate in Emei Township in 2016, and started farming the land with his son who has a master’s degree. When asked why he chose to grow tea trees to produce tea oil, Chang said, “The largest production from Emei Township is citruses, next is oriental beauty tea and tea seed oil is third. The former two requires intensive labor and pesticides. Since my ancestral land had been abandoned for years and unpolluted, I chose a crop that I can grow using natural farming.” In the second year after HAO JING JHUANG was established, he formed a production and marketing group with surrounding tea seed oil farmers. As the leader of the group, and utilizing management experience from his past jobs, he controlled harvesting time for tea seeds at their most matured, ensuring the highest yield of oil and even obtaining organic certification. Realizing that Taiwan did not have any certified oil pressing factory, he joined hands with farmers in his production and marketing group and related people to establish Chi Ke Shan Company, which is a certified oil pressing factory. Since then, tea seed oil produced by the factory has become famous. Virtually all tea farmers in Taiwan seeking high-quality tea seed oil will send their tea seeds here to be pressed.