The most fragrant mountain tribe in Taiwan! Moon peach whitening, marigold anti-aging, Naro tribe paved a way home with vanilla

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From the Inner Bay of Hsinchu to the mountains, after crossing the Frog Stone Trail, please roll down the window and take a big breath to feel the air completely different from that of the city. The sun moves slowly in the field, scented by an inch of golden moon peaches; Naruo water from Dabajian Mountain, watering the rosemary fragrance of Tianzhu roses; butterflies flapping their wings, luring grapefruit and lemon mint to spread the fragrance. Under the vanilla air guide, you don't need to navigate the APP to know that you have reached a place called Naro in the vanilla tribe ──.

Looking back on the path, the transformation of leisure and sightseeing but the poignant history of burying flowers

The Naluo tribe has a vanilla sky, and Wu Xiumei is the one who has made great contributions.

Nearly 30 years ago, in order to help indigenous tribes develop leisure agriculture, the Naluo tribe in Jianshi Township, Hsinchu, was selected to plant vanilla and planned as a leisure park. With the assistance of the Council of Agriculture and the Xinshe Seedling Farm, the farmland that used to grow rice and vegetables is in full bloom and smells delicious. The idea at that time was to let the people of the city come to the original tribe, touch the flowers and smell the grass, and make use of the name of the vanilla leisure park to make the tribe gorgeous.

Going to the aboriginal tribe to enjoy the flowers sounds like a romantic date. Many farmers in the tribe have put into planting, and everyone goes to the fields and sings "Jasmine" together. However, the business model of a tourist charging 50 or 100 yuan to enter the park simply does not work. The park spends more than 7 million yuan a year, but it only earns more than 700,000 yuan. A few farmers share a point, and their income is even more bitter than when they planted rice. Moreover, as soon as the tourism boom was over, there were no more flower watchers in the park, and the farmers buried the flowers painstakingly, only causing a lot of incense.

At this time, Wu Hsiu-mei came to the Nalo tribe, which is 99% of the Atayal people. when she saw that the farmers had cut down all the vanilla, she cried out with heartache, "those are all gold!"

Naluo became the vanilla tribe, and Wu Xiumei was the first hero. (photography / Yang Yuyun) the fragrance therapist turned into a farmer to find out the physiological time for flowers to spit out fragrance

Wu Hsiu-mei may be called the ancestor of aromatherapy in Taiwan. She obtained an aromatherapy license from the West Coast Academy of aromatic Therapy in Canada and is the college's chief lecturer in Asia. Many aromatherapy seed teachers in Taiwan are her students. In addition to her unique skills, she has also visited essential oil refineries around the world to know the context of the essential oil industry. Seeing that the gold Naluo planted with good mountains and good water was treated as rubbish by farmers, she thought she could help. Even if her family opposed it, she still "abandoned her family and children" and went her own way.

However, Wu Xiumei forgot to think about it before rolling up her sleeves. She was familiar with essential oil production, not vanilla cultivation, and she was very afraid of insects. When she first went to the fields with farmers to plant, she was so scared that she was so scared that she threw out her hoe and almost cut off her companion's leg. In addition, it was only after making essential oils by hand that Wu Hsiu-mei learned that there are two kinds of flower fragrance: "gas" and "system," and crops also have different physiological clocks.

She spent a lot of time extracting the fragrance of jasmine, but she never succeeded. Only later did she realize that at the latitude of Taiwan, jasmine will smell at 06:30 in the afternoon. "it's really like popcorn, the flowers rustling one by one, spitting out the fragrance brewing in the air chamber." Therefore, the gold harvest time is from 06:30 to 07:30, and immediately after harvest, we should enter the process of distillation and condensation.

Relatively speaking, roses and magnolia belong to institutional fragrance, and they slowly release fragrance. After harvesting, such flowers have to go through withering before they can be distilled, condensed and get precious pure dew.

The marigold planted by the Naro tribe, the pure marigold with anti-aging function is very easy to absorb, and many consumers can't put it down. (photography / Yang Yuyun) the talented people play "alchemy", giving up essential oils and taking pure dew

While learning to be a farmer in the field, Wu Xiumei struggled with extraction technology in the laboratory. Her earnestness finally moved many tribal farmers and was willing to follow her to have another vanilla dream.

Farmers are recommended to grow flowers, while Wu Xiumei is responsible for developing products. However, for as long as five years, Wu Xiumei has been hesitant about the direction of the product. Her own specialty is essential oil, and the price of essential oil is high, which is best for farmers. However, considering the competitiveness of the market, she is indecisive. Take lavender as an example. In France, with large-scale planting and mechanized harvesting, the purchase price of lavender per kilogram is less than NT $20. How can Taiwan's real estate compete with foreign imports?.

Finally, Wu Xiumei essential oil, take pure dew (note). "take marigolds as an example. 8 kilograms of flowers can take 3 liters of pure dew, but only 1.2 milliliters of essential oil." Because pure dew is so cheap, foreign manufacturers simply abandon it, giving Taiwan's aromatherapy industry a glimmer of life.

After distillation and condensation, there is only a thin layer of essential oil floating on the pure dew. (photography / Yang Yuyun) get an international order, make a plan to plant, and share out dividends for production and marketing classes and cooperatives.

Determine the direction of the product, the dignitaries also follow the appearance. Beauty talent Niu er first promoted magnolia pure dew to open up the popularity of the Naluo vanilla brand, and Aveda's millions of orders a year helped Naro gain a foothold. "what I am most proud of is that we don't have a salesman, but relying on word of mouth, we have orders from international companies." Wu Hsiu-mei pointed to the pineapple sage behind her and said, "these are already 'famous grasses.' we follow the order to work with farmers and will never grow unnecessary crops."

At present, the Naro vanilla production and marketing class has a total of more than 6A of land. Because of the proper management mechanism, farmers in the production and marketing class and co-operative staff can also pay dividends at the end of each year in addition to their due wages and salaries.

More importantly, vanilla plants have few insect pests and do not need pesticides; the residue after distillation is the best compost. Because of growing vanilla, the land becomes pure and natural, and farmers smile away because they are sitting on "the most fragrant gold."

Chamomile

Thyme

The beautiful Cherry Naro tribe greets the pure water and holy air of the foggy Jianshan and raises vanilla to return to the earth. (photography / Yang Yuyun) more than 40 kinds of pure dew have their own effects, writing vanilla into Atayal history.

Many people think that "vanilla plants" are Western products, but Wu Xiumei said that in fact, there are as many as 28 kinds of herbs and fragrant flowers, such as daffodils and mint, in the Compendium of Materia Medica. They play a certain role in Chinese culture such as food seasoning, beauty maintenance, essential oil incense, refined pharmaceuticals, and so on. Wormwood and citronella, which are necessary for the Dragon Boat Festival, are an example. Jia Baoyu's spanked buttocks in A Dream of Red Mansions rely on Muxilu (sweet-scented osmanthus dew) to relieve inflammation, which is also an example.

Therefore, Wu Xiumei gives full play to her vanilla knowledge and lists the effects of each kind of vanilla and fragrant flowers, as well as the recipes that match each other. At present, more than 40 kinds of pure dew have been launched. Consumers can adjust according to their own needs. For example, wild ginger flower calms the mind, magnolia can relieve cough, peppermint anti-inflammatory refreshing, Xiao Nan can improve dry skin around the eyes, calendula for internal and external use can be anti-aging. Pure dew can be diluted to drink, can also be directly used as toner, Naluo vanilla also makes masks, hand sanitizers, detergents and other products, beauty friends should all take home.

In addition, Wu Hsiu-mei also mentioned that Naluo is about to run a "vanilla kitchen," so the tribe has also planted a lot of geraniums, cherry, and borage that can be eaten. Finally, Wu Xiumei said that she has been in Naro for 23 years, and although she is only a trickle in the long history, she believes that "vanilla" can be written into the history of the Atayal. Under the vanilla sky, the Atayal people want to let the flowers