Neili Community - Mingxiang Nongcao Herb Garden

If you wish to learn about Southeast Asian herb culture, you can book a guided tour through the Neili Community Development Association. Tour guides lead visitors into the "Mingxiang Nongcao Herb Garden," where they will introduce the various Southeast Asian herbs cultivated in the park. Spreading its fragrance far and wide from the outdoor kitchen, the garden cultivates over 40 types of Southeast Asian herbs commonly used in Vietnamese and Thai cuisine, such as pandan leaves, lemongrass, wild betel leaves, and Indonesian bananas. Beyond just learning about herbs, visitors can further engage by using freshly harvested Plectranthus amboinicus (Indian borage) from the garden to make insect-repelling and itch-relieving balms; prepare fried eggs with fresh Skunk Vine (Paederia foetida) leaves; or extract juice from pandan leaves to make Malaysian coconut balls and other dishes. This offers a hands-on experience of how herbs are used in daily life, leaving a deeper impression of Southeast Asian culture. While visitors might usually only see their names on menus in exotic restaurants, this experiential tour allows them not only to recognize their true forms but also to touch and taste them. The "Mingxiang Nongcao Herb Garden" is part of the Neili Community's community vegetable garden, "Zhizu Garden" (Contentment Garden). Adjacent to it is a raised-bed garden, designed to be "no-bend," allowing elderly seniors to also participate in cultivating the land and promoting an environmentally friendly lifestyle, embodying the concept of integrating environmental sustainability into daily life. In addition to organic fertilizers collaboratively produced by community residents, the garden area also features a brick kiln, stoves, and a pavilion. Here, freshly harvested vegetables and fruits from the garden can be directly cooked and served, making it a popular outdoor kitchen. It has also become an agri-food education site for outdoor learning programs organized by many corporate groups and academic institutions. The Mingxiang Nongcao Herb Garden not only serves as an herb classroom for visitors to learn about Southeast Asia but also provides a platform for many new immigrant friends to utilize their skills by participating in tour guide roles.