00:00Most visitors to Alishan spend their time gazing up at the towering trees
00:06reaching more than 40 meters into the sky. These Taiwan red cypress are
00:12thought to be thousands of years old. But down beneath the surface of the earth
00:16there's another treasure that's often overlooked. The locals call it green gold.
00:30This is wasabi, an essential Japanese condiment that's paired with something
00:41that's hard to find in these parts, sashimi or raw fish. Wasabi is a finicky root.
00:48You can only harvest it during a two-month period once every three years. Farmers have been growing
00:55wasabi here since the Japanese colonial era, even though these forests are off-limits.
01:0270-year-old Zhang Jinping, the owner of this small farm, began trading wasabi at the age of 22.
01:09But when the authorities began cracking down on the harvest, it almost wiped out a beloved tradition.
01:15Now he's trying to find a viable way to bring it back.
01:25The distinct nose-clearing
01:54heat of wasabi comes from the root, and you get maximum flavor by grinding it fresh.
02:01While most people eat wasabi with sashimi or sushi, you can also enjoy it as a juice
02:06or a flavored salt. And there's another, more unconventional way to experience it.
02:12A dessert that bites back. Ice cream. Wasabi ice cream.
02:19Never heard of something like this before.
02:29That's great. It has all of the sweetness and the fragrance of the wasabi with just a
02:35tiny bit of the spice. Very refreshing on a hot day.
02:41Wasabi farmer Zhang Jinping is working alongside local indigenous farmers
02:46to cultivate these precious plants at lower altitudes, where it's legal to grow them.
02:52And they've got support from the county government.
03:08From a centuries-old condiment to a bold new ingredient,
03:12wasabi has become a symbol of Alishan's resilience.
03:16Even though it's rooted in the past, it continues to offer fresh possibilities for the future.
03:22Devin Tsai, Joseph Wu, Peachy Drong, and Andrew Ryan for Taiwan Plus.
03:29Coming up in part four, what do you do when a typhoon deposits stacks of wood in your reservoir?
03:35We'll take you to a village that's turning driftwood into violins.
03:42you
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