In an effort to encourage the women in the Ladies of the Fields group to use local agricultural produce in bringing out the potential for great food and creating dishes that can only be found in Taitung, the Taitung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station (TTDARES) of the Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan held the “Ladies of the Fields Study Workshop” in the meeting room on the second floor of the TTDARES education center on June 3. A total of 64 people from the Ladies of the Fields group, home economics classes, leisure farms, and B&Bs from all over Taitung attended the event.

TTDARES Director Chen Hsin-yen stated that with Taitung’s location in southeastern Taiwan, a place of beautiful water, majestic mountains, and little air pollution, people at the TTDARES have put a lot of work into research on the cultivation of special crops and the development of numerous related products. The goal is to create a whole cuisine native to Taitung through the integration of the region’s high-quality agricultural products with the dining industry and produce-based farm tourism. In addition to helping the Ladies of the Fields become familiar with how to use local ingredients, the workshop also had as its aim the improvement of cooking techniques and sparking creativity in promoting the development of the Lohas industry in Taitung.

Besides the informative content of the class taught by Yu Pei-hong (chairperson of the Taiwan Healthy and Creative Cuisine Development Association) and the emphasis on a complete understanding of food hygiene, attendees also became familiar with the special features of numerous local ingredients and cooking skills through hands-on experience, meeting the objective of inspiring creativity for new products that can be used for picnics.