04 Xiang Ting Organic Coffee Farm (鄉庭有機咖啡莊園)

Farm Story

Have you ever thought about what you’d like to do in your leisurely retirement life? Some people choose to develop their hobbies, like fishing or playing golf; others prefer to enjoy family life at home, taking care of grandchildren; and some opt to slow down their pace of life, living in seclusion in the mountains, spending their days farming when it’s sunny and reading when it rains.

Life’s circumstances are always so mysterious; no one can predict them. Zhang Jinyi, who originally worked at Taiwan Cement Corporation, happened to see that his relative had a good income from raising chickens. So, at the age of 47, he decisively chose to retire early from Taiwan Cement and enter the livestock industry. Career changes always come with risks. At first, Zhang Jinyi not only lost all his retirement savings but also incurred significant debt. However, no matter how hard and tiring it was, after experiencing ups and downs, Zhang Jinyi finally made a name for his farm.

Zhang Jinyi’s life experience didn’t stop there. Originally, there weren’t thousands of coffee trees in the Xiang Ting Farm as there are now. Seventy small coffee seedlings brought the aroma of coffee into Zhang Jinyi’s life. Zhang Jinyi had some classmates who loved coffee. Seeing that he wasn’t interested in coffee, they took the coffee cherries from his garden to process and roast themselves. However, to their surprise, Zhang Jinyi’s classmates unanimously said that his coffee had a very good flavor. So he also tasted the coffee produced on his own estate and realized how delicious it was. After three months of consideration, Zhang Jinyi decided to venture into coffee cultivation. Thus, along with chicken farming, Zhang Jinyi took on the dual identities of a livestock farmer and an agriculturist.

The first few years of growing coffee were Zhang Jinyi’s toughest times. Due to his lack of experience in coffee cultivation, he kept cycling through planting coffee seedlings, losing them, and replanting. However, just like when he first ventured into the chicken farming business, Zhang Jinyi wasn’t afraid to start from scratch. By chance, a classmate from Kaohsiung took him to Gukeng in Yunlin to learn. From then on, Zhang Jinyi would visit coffee estates in central and southern Taiwan every month, listening to suggestions from various estates and learning from their strengths.

Whether it’s chicken farming or growing coffee, Xiang Ting adheres to the principles of being toxin-free and organic. Instead of confining the chickens, they are free-range, allowing them to move around healthily and happily, naturally eliminating the need for antibiotics. Zhang Jinyi has a unique perspective on animal husbandry. He believes that just as there’s a fallow period for crop cultivation, there should be a “resting period” for raising chickens. In the past, traditional confined methods had one batch of chickens following another, leaving no time to thoroughly clean the coops. This made it easy for the next batch of chickens to fall ill, which Zhang Jinyi couldn’t accept. Therefore, he thoroughly cleans the areas where the chickens are active between each batch, removing all bacteria and residual excrement. He lets the sun’s ultraviolet rays disinfect the area and even allows heavy rain to wash the land clean.

Raising poultry always comes with concerns about waste management, but for Zhang Jinyi, this isn’t a problem. He uses chicken manure as natural fertilizer for his coffee trees. His free-range chickens freely peck at natural food in the wild, and Zhang Jinyi even discovered that the chickens love eating Mikania micrantha, an invasive species that causes ecological havoc. After these foods are digested in the chickens’ bodies and become droppings, they go through layers of decomposition and eventually transform into nutrient-rich organic fertilizer, allowing the coffee trees to absorb these natural nutrients. This method not only reduces land pollution issues but also avoids the environmental pressure brought by chemical fertilizers. On his farm, all resources are fully utilized: Mikania micrantha and other natural resources feed the chickens, chicken manure nourishes the coffee trees, and coffee cherries become coffee and coffee cherry tea. Zhang Jinyi’s approach has achieved an organic ecological cycle, contributing to the sustainable development of the land.

“Agriculture is a conscientious industry,” Zhang Jinyi has insisted since he first came to Shoufeng, Hualien. The ecology in Xiang Ting Organic Coffee Estate is diverse, without excessive development or destruction. All products in the estate have obtained organic certification. Zhang Jinyi raises healthy chickens with a healthy mindset and grows eco-friendly premium coffee. The coffee grown in this beautiful landscape is no less flavorful compared to coffee from other regions. It’s a regular on the list of organic entries in Hualien County’s premium coffee evaluations, even sweeping the special prize, first prize, and silver award honors in the 2022 competition.

Here, you can enjoy a cup of flavorful coffee, drink coffee cherry tea, and even savor a bowl of hot coffee chicken soup, all while taking in the beautiful scenery of the East Rift Valley. It’s all so pleasant. The Xiang Ting Coffee Estate has a diverse natural ecology, abundant water resources, and an excellent environment. Surrounded by the green mountains, clear waters, blue sky, and azure sea of Hualien, Zhang Jinyi takes pride in his farm and his insistence on being toxin-free and organic. Through this carefully constructed estate, he gives back to the land and the neighborhood.