Locally grown Dulan cacti used to make food, soap

Locally grown Dulan cacti used to make food, soap

2025-10-02

To enjoy cactus, people usually go to Penghu. But Taitung’s Dulan also has it! Five years ago, farmer Lin Chung-chou dove headfirst into the wonderful world of cacti. At first he was just trying it out, but that led to a cultivation of an interest. He makes use of the east coast’s uniquely advantageous geography to grow many kinds of cacti, and has even come up with different products using the crop.

Freshly picked cactus is washed, peeled, and diced before tossing with fresh lettuce, onion, and bell peppers in dressing to make a refreshing and healthy salad. Pair it with a glass of bright green cactus juice, its sweetly sour notes perfect for quenching summer thirst.

Aside from serving it fresh, cactus can also be sun-dried and sliced to cook with chicken drumsticks. The pot simmers gently over low heat, giving the soup a truly unique flavor.

Lin Chung-chou
Cactus farmer
The east coast is mountainous and we don’t have much water, so it’s very well suited for it. On top of that, our volcanic soil provides the ideal conditions for cacti, so it thrives extremely well here.

Five years ago, Taitung farmer Lin Chung-chou started growing cacti in Dulan. At first, he just wanted to try it out. He never thought he’d cultivate an interest along with it. Lin scoured literature from Taiwan and abroad to discover that every part of the plant is valuable.

Lin Chung-chou
Cactus farmer
The amazing part about cacti is that their lobes can be eaten like vegetables and the fruit can be eaten as fruit. And the entire plant is decorative.

Lin also came up with innovative uses for cactus, like in soap and sausages. Whether it’s eaten or used, cactus is fit for the job. Lin’s 1-hectare farm has over 1,000 cacti of all shapes and sizes.

Lin Chung-chou
Cactus farmer
At the moment, the main ones we grow are about 20 different kinds. We keep growing different ones, like ones you can’t eat that are only ornamental. As we kept adding we have upwards of 100 kinds. And keep adding more.

Next time you visit Taitung, you can enjoy many cactus delicacies while also appreciating all kinds of ornamental cacti. If you’re lucky, you might even see them flowering!

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Mon to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

#cactus #cacti #Taitung #Dulan #agriculture #salad #farmer #innovative #productdevelopment

台東都蘭也有仙人掌 "入菜.做香皂"整株都是寶

2025-10-02

吃仙人掌不用到澎湖，台東都蘭也能吃到! 農民林忠洲5年前，一頭栽進仙人掌的世界，本來只是試種的他，卻種出了興趣，不只利用東台灣得天獨厚的地理環境，培育多種仙人掌，還開發出多種仙人掌產品，從吃的到用的，通通都是"仙人掌"牌。

新鮮現摘的仙人掌，沖洗乾淨，去皮切丁，搭配生菜、洋蔥及彩椒，再淋上沙拉醬，一道可口又養生的生菜沙拉就能上桌！再來上一杯鮮綠色的仙人掌果汁，酸甜風味，暑氣全消。

不只做涼拌，仙人掌根莖曬乾後、刨成片，加入鮮嫩雞腿，下鍋小火燉煮，冒著絲絲熱氣的仙人掌雞湯，風味更是獨特！

[[仙人掌農場農民林忠洲]]
"花東地區是山坡地，這邊的水也沒有那麼充足，所以非常的適合，加上我們這邊是火山凝灰岩的地形，土壤很適合它，所以它成長得非常非常棒"

台東農民林忠洲5年前，在台東都蘭，開始種起仙人掌，本來只是想試試，沒想到種出了興趣！林忠洲找遍國內外文獻，發現仙人掌從頭到腳都是寶。

[[仙人掌農場農民林忠洲]]
"所以它(仙人掌)厲害的地方就是，鮮葉片等於是一個蔬菜，那開花結果，它的果實就是水果，當水果使用，那整株，它就是一個景觀樹"

林忠洲更研發出仙人掌香皂及仙人掌香腸，不論是吃的還是用的，仙人掌都能參一腳。占地1公頃的農場，現在已經被上千棵，大小不同的仙人掌全面佔據。

[[仙人掌農場農民林忠洲]]
"目前主要的大概有二十幾種，我們還一直培養一些，不同其他的，不能吃的那種觀賞型的，加一加大概有上百種，還陸續一直增加當中"

現在到台東，不只能品嘗仙人掌佳餚，還能欣賞到各式各樣的仙人掌植株，更有機會，見到難得的仙人掌開花奇景哦!

更多新聞內容，請鎖定：
民視台灣台（152頻道）週一至週五晚上9:30
民視新聞台（53頻道）週二至週六凌晨1:00

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The opening film for this year’s festival features Chantal Akerman’s “The Meetings of Anna.” It follows the story of a filmmaker as she travels through European cities. This year’s "Master in Focus" program showcases some of Akerman’s most notable works, including eight fiction, documentary and experimental films.

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This year, one of the highlights will be Chantal Akerman’s program, which is called Master in Focus Chantal Akerman. In this program, altogether we bring eight films by Chantal Akerman and also one film by an artist’s group’s film that tries to respond to Chantal Akerman’s work. This is our second time presenting Chantal Akerman’s films. This year, we sort of more on targeting her last known films and also, for example, her literary adaptation films or her TV films. I think it is a really great opportunity for the audience to learn a more multifaceted side of Chantal Akerman.

This year’s festival embraces the theme "Broken Scenery and A Room with A View," drawing inspiration from Virginia Woolf’s seminal essay A Room of One’s Own. A total of 74 films and nine programs will be showcased. Women Make Waves International Film Festival was established as a non-profit organization in 1993, and has been one of the major film festivals in Taiwan. Its mission is to support and celebrate female talents by covering a wide range of genres, issues, and representations of women.

Chen Huei-yin
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For this year, our thematic focus is called “po fengjing,” which directly translates into Chinese it will be broken scenery. It sort of echoes back to the outside world that we observe. It seems kind of flawed and imperfect, but what we meant by broken is to imagine a place of breakthrough and also to invite more alternative imagination in terms of viewpoints or the scenery that you might be able to see because of the brokenness.

The film festival will be held at the SPOT Huashan Cinema from Oct. 17 until Oct. 26.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Mon to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
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Fields of orange daylilies bloom on Kinchen Mountain in Taitung

Hundreds of bright orange daylilies are blooming in Taitung’s Taimali Township. While many flowers were destroyed by Typhoon Podul in August, these flowers came out unscathed, as they grow at a lower altitude and bloom later in the season. Visitors from around Taiwan are flocking to the mountainside to behold fields of these orange blossoms.

Bright orange daylilies are in full bloom, their petals curved outward to proudly reveal their stamen. This is what Kinchen Mountain in Taitung’s Taimali Township currently looks like.

A sea of flowers stretches over the mountainside like a golden carpet. The air is filled with the scent of blooming flowers, bringing smiles to people’s faces as they walk through the field. Many people make the trip to Taitung and hike up the mountain just to appreciate this beautiful sight.

Mr. Peng
Gardener
Because Typhoon Podul made landfall in Taimali this year, and since the valley lies directly on the windward side, the flowers in Wangyou Valley were hit especially hard. The damage was also more severe in the north-facing area near Qianhe Pavilion.

The daylilies started blooming at Shuangru Peak at the end of August this year. Unfortunately, due to Typhoon Podul, flowers on the windward-facing side of the mountain were almost all destroyed. But on the mountain’s leeward side, these bright orange flowers bloomed in full force.

Kinchen Mountain resident
This year due to Typhoon Podul, some of the early season flowers were destroyed, but the later flowers bloomed as usual. Some weren’t picked, so you can see them.

Mr. Peng
Gardener
The blooming season can last until November and there will still be some flowers.

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A dog stands still and silent on the back seat. During a break from clearing out mud in Guangfu, a group of students from Yilan found the animal inside the car tied up with a leash around its neck.

Lee Pin-chen
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At first we were just curious. We just wanted to open the door and take a look. When we opened, we saw the dog emerging from inside. It gave us a fright!

They immediately rushed to the rescue. This group of students came to Guangfu with their teacher to help clear the mud at a bed-and-breakfast on Fozu Street. While out on a walk in the area, they found a car stuck on a bridge, and their curiosity saved the dog inside.

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They were so shocked, they called out, “Miss! There’s a dog here!”

The dog appeared weak, but immediately recovered after it was given water and food. The past few days have been hot in Hualien, so it was lucky that the car was in the shade and that the sunroof window had broken, providing ventilation that kept the dog alive.

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The students had just gone for a day of digging up mud, and ended up saving a life among the chaos.

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