Last weekend my wife and I traveled down to Central Taiwan to visit one of her friend’s who lives in the town of Puli, in Nantou county. It was a pretty short visit, not much more than 24 hours from leaving our apartment to arriving back, and not at all designed to be a photography weekend. I had a camera with me though in order to shoot a quick family portrait for our hosts, and it came with me as we were heading out on Sunday to the countryside for a bit of sightseeing and eating. Pumpkins were what caught my eye, three different varieties all in the same region. Pumpkin is quite common in Taiwanese and Chinese cuisine, and while searching the web to see if I could find out a bit more information on Taiwan’s pumpkin, I discovered that there is one particular farm that grows over fifty different species. I didn’t even know there were that many species of pumpkin. Needless to say, I’m intrigued and have bookmarked the site with the intention of paying the farm a visit in the future.

One of Taiwan's pumpkin varieties. Pumpkin is often steamed in Taiwanese and Chinese cuisine. (Craig Ferguson)