Waiting for the bus....
....arriving at the Mushroom farm.
Are orchids really from earth? They don't look like it to me....the farm shop was surrounded by many beautiful flowers.
A look at the outside.
Hsinshe is one of the key mushroom growing areas of the island, and mushroom farms line the road.
The farm provided a speaker who was excellent with the kids and explained everything very clearly.
Sheds full of mushrooms line the side roads too. All of these belonged to the farm we visited.
A machine used to sort the mushrooms by size.
Mom and Zeb concentrate on the speaker.
One of Taiwan's many interesting spiders....
Off down the hill to the next stop: picking mushrooms!
Juying poses in her new Indian shirt.
Getting ready to go in.....
The farm also included several orchards where guavas, peaches, and Asian pears were grown.
A baby wild pig begs for a handout....
A field of gourds, whose leaves are also edible.
Inside a mushroom shed.
The kids were allowed to harvest the mushrooms that were ready.
Berries burst into summer....
The Peach Orchard.
Still life with peaches.
A closeup of the reason we were there....
The postman making his daily rounds. The Post Office in Taiwan is generally efficient, moreso than the US post office.
A farm road lined with fruit trees.
The farm also raised rhinoceros and stag beetles as a sideline income.
A closeup of a moneymaker....
Who wants to hold the beetle?
After exploring the farm, we were invited to drop a few dollars at the gift shop.
Zeb and Dan-dan pause with their loot.
Dan-dan with her classmate Rebecca, whose father is also from the States.
What would a trip be without a tea break?
The steep mountain topography is perfect for many different kinds of crops.
The bus waits....