Taipei Times
Date: Oct 22, 2015
By: Lee Chung-hsien and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
After changing from betel nuts, 63-year-old farmer Chu Kuo-hsing (朱國興)
Chu Kuo-hsing who holds up persimmons from his farm in Taichung on Tuesday. Photo: Lee Chung-hsien, Taipei Times
now grows nationally renowned persimmons, acclaimed for their size and sweetness, at his farm in Taichung’s Heping District (和平).
Chu said he uses low amounts of planticides and fertilizers on his fruit trees, but his persimmons are both sweeter and bigger than the average fruit.
He said his secret is technical assistance from National Chung Hsing University agriculture and natural resources professor Tsay Tsung-tsuan (蔡東纂), who was introduced to Chu by the farmer’s elder brother.
Prior to becoming a successful persimmon farmer, Chu said he grew bamboo shoots and betel nuts with his parents near Taichung’s Dakeng (大坑) area and that he was a leading betel-nut farmer. [FULL STORY]
