With a long-lasting life ahead, have you ever thought about what you’ll do at the age of 70? Will you spend time with your grandchildren? Will you travel around the world with your old friends or your beloved partner?

Tien-Chi Chen, also known as Uncle Turmeric, who’s from Beinan Township in Taitung County, Taiwan, has an impressively unique life experience as a senior. As he reached his fifties, he passed down his long-term vegetables and spices supplying business to his oldest son, starting his retired life. One day, he was walking around a local market of a foreign country. As Uncle Turmeric saw turmeric on sale, he recalled that his mother always used turmeric to cure his stomach ache. Out of his calling or nostalgia for his mother, Chen bought turmeric to return to his home country, started the new stage of his retired life, and thus established the well-known Uncle Turmeric business.

At first, planting turmeric was just an experimental attempt without too much attention to strategically cultivate the crops. However, the vigorous vitality of turmeric thrived in the fields, which led to the idea of planting a large number of it.

Since many of the senior members of his family were engaged in farming, Uncle Turmeric, too, was quite adept at it. However, when it came to turmeric, he had no one around him to consult or learn from, so he searched for online resources by himself and consulted Professor Tzuo-Chi Huang from National Pingtung University of Science and Technology for advice on the characteristics and medicinal properties of turmeric. He built an organic herb garden for cultivating turmeric step by step. Uncle Turmeric’s wholehearted devotion with passion was initially underestimated by his friends and family and faced many difficulties, but he never gave up. On the contrary, he became more courageous in his pursuit and delved further into the properties and application methods of different varieties of turmeric.

Early on, the market regarded turmeric as a spice or traditional Chinese medicine. However, Ginger Uncle took an innovative approach, starting with the idea of using it as a food ingredient and focusing on the turmeric variety with higher curcumin content, Circuma longa L. He developed turmeric powder suitable for consumption. However, for some people, the taste and texture of turmeric powder, which is slightly spicy and bitter, make it difficult to consume.

Therefore, Uncle Turmeric put his mind to work again and launched a series of recipes, such as curry sauce, turmeric-marinated pork, turmeric fried rice, and more. He openly taught people how to use turmeric in cooking, incorporating it into various dishes, so that consumers can enjoy nutritious and satisfying meals. This approach also successfully created a distinctive image that set him apart from his competitors.