Its flower is a magnet for the artistic mind; its leaves can be cooked, dying the morning's congee with light green color, perfuming it with a fresh herb odor. Its rootstock is a tasty dish to gourmand or gourmet; its seed is served as a dessert; and its seed heart finds its use in Chinese herbal medicines. It is thus a most highly economical plant, from tip to tip. People call it lotus, water lily, or sleeping lily.
A scorching sun hangs above a horizonless pond, whose lotus flowers display delicate but glamorous visages to the naming sunshine; the umbrella-like leaves ripple with the puffs of gentle breeze above the water surface. You may see such a view islandwide, during any scorching summer day. In the southern part of the island, lotus ponds are, in particular, densely located.
Lientan (Lotus Pond), a township in Tainan County, counts no more than 50 households, 90 percent of which house families with the same last name, Lai—a not uncommon phenomenon in the secluded villages of the mountainous area or along isolated seashores. The people of such communities are more conservative—they do not easily move to other places, nor do they welcome the intrusions of outsiders. Here in Lientan, people live up to its name: For centuries they have been specialist farmers—experts in planting lotus.
"Because the lotus likes to do its growing in high temperatures, amid high humidity environments, farmers here start their planting in the 3rd lunar month," Lai Pen-fen, an employee of the Lientan Agricultural Institute, informed us. In Taiwan's agricultural circle, the lunar calendar governs the planting season. After chiu fen (the autumnal equinox), the rice has been harvested, and water is flooded into the paddy fields to drown and rot the withered, leftover rice roots and stems. When the first chun yu (spring rain) comes, farmers start planting the lotus. Being a shallow-water plant, last year's over-matured lotus rootstocks stand in no more than a two-foot depth of water.
As the season approaches the 5th lunar month, radiantly beautiful lotus plants lift up their giant blooms among the leaves, and boaters row among the flowers to enjoy the cooled air in the shadows of the large, umbrella-like leaves. One poet describes the situation:
Flowers in full blossom,
Leaves in exuberance;
Rowing through the shadow,
Fishing beside the pond,
A gentle breeze,
A floating cloud—
What a lovely Shangri-la
on a scorching summer day!
But Lientan's inhabitants are busily working. The lotus flowers may be in full bloom for one week. As soon as the flowers begin fading, the petals start falling, signalling the harvest season for lotus seeds. To pluck the shower-head-like lotus cupule, to strip the lotus seed shell, to peel off the skin and remove the seed embryo requires incredibly time-consuming, labor-exhausting work. Generally, over the whole summer, all local people from eight to eighty join the production line.
The caltrop is often a volunteer among the lotus
The skills for lotus growing were transferred here from Liuchia 20 years ago. Because profits in this business were large, the lotus ponds were constantly expanded—wider and wider. In the heyday of the lotus market, the ponds covered more than 100 hectares of Lientan. Later on, when the profits from lotus plantings dropped, the lotus area shrank drastically," Lai Pen-fen said regretfully. In Taiwan, farmers usually rotate crops over the year; they may grow rice in the summer and vegetables in the winter. Or they rotate lotus with rice.
To harvest lotus seed, the farmers, wearing high-tube rubber boots and gloves, slog through the sticky mud, forcing through the densely planted lotus. There are many prickles along the lotus leaves and lotus stems; they may not hurt you, but their pricking in the naming sun makes you feel itchy.
"To save time, whenever you pick a lotus cupule, you snap the leaves beside it to get a better view, and so you won't repeat the picking route." Swarthy Lai Yuan-rong, who has planted lotus for more than 10 years, also notes that, "More profit will be earned from any paddy by planting lotus and growing rice. However, you have to run risks, because the harvest season for lotus seeds is also the typhoon season, and just one typhoon may spoil the whole harvest." Lai owns six hectares of lotus ponds, and his whole family joins in the harvest process, from picking the lotus seed to peeling its skin and removing the seed embryo. "Labor costs are too high. Usually, we all help each other during the harvest season. Whenever one family's lotus seed is ready for harvest, the neighbors pitch in," Lai said. The ready-to-be-eaten lotus seeds bring about US$3 a pound. And when the seed harvest is in its final stage, the farmers are already busy harvesting the lotus rootstock.
Collecting the lotus roots is also tiring, exhausting work. Just as day dawns, the Lais go down to the now dry lotus pond, the withered leaves rising above the dirty mud; the ready-to-be harvested rootstocks are well buried in the earth. Choosing a strong lotus stem, Lai drags at its roots with a harrow. In the muddy soil, lotus rootstocks usually grow 5 to 7 joints. Just emerged from the earth, they are really ugly-looking. But a good washing in water reveals an attractive light grayish-red body, pierced by concentric holes. While washing lotus rootstock, Lai commented, "When the new harvest just comes to market in mid-summer, prices are much higher. The tail part, juicy and good for eating raw, brings US$2 for five to six joints. The head part, with its old fibers, still can be stewed with pork or squeezed for juice."
Lai told me how to choose good lotus rootstock: "A root with too long or too short joints is not top eating; only medium size rootstocks of a light grayish-red color are of superior quality."
The dealers buy the lotus rootstocks from farmers during the summer, selling some of them right away, and freezing the successive quantities for later sales. Consumers enjoy the flavor of lotus year round.
One Chinese idiom, ou tuan szu lien, depicts the character of the lotus rootstock vividly. It indicates that, though the rootstock is split, the fibers are still joined—a phrase usually applied to lingering affection or friendship after a final break, as in the case of a divorced couple.
Water caltrop, another kind of edible subtropical, shallow-water plant, sometimes is a volunteer among the lotus; its growing season and harvest season are just the same as for the lotus. In the harvest period, the picking girls row wooden boats to pick its fruit. They always sing an old love song, Picking Water Caltrop, as they work:
Only we, you and I, row the boat,
To pick the water caltrop.
You never leave me,
I never stray far from you;
Just like the water caltrop's two tails,
Never separated.
This song not only describes the fruit, but the girls' hopes. The fruit is an attractive, Napoleon-hat-shaped seed with a hard purple shell. After being boiled, the shelled seed makes a good snack food like a kind of nut or bean.
But, no matter if it is lotus seed, lotus rootstock, or water caltrop, for the farmers these are all money-making crops. And for travelers out appreciating the scenery, enjoying their beauty is what counts...until it is time for dinner.