Novatek volunteers accompanied the visually-impaired students on a farm education tour to experience the cooking of Dajia taro with earth oven
Volunteer Service
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When it comes to Dajia, one thinks of the delicious and soft taro! Dajia is famous for its rich taro production. For every 10 taro in Taiwan, one and a half come from Dajia. Why is Dajia rich in taro? How do local taro farmers take care of taro? The Novatek volunteers and the visually-impaired students from the Changhua County Visually Impaired Care Association will find the answers together!
Before the farming experience, everyone prepared their own afternoon snacks. The ingredients include native eggs produced from an environmentally friendly approach by young farmers, as well as corn and sweet potatoes are grown without pesticides. The ingredients were cooked with the traditional earth oven. The volunteers and the visually impaired students have never built an earth before. They can only rely on the guidance of the instructor. First, soil blocks were placed around the pit that has dug on the ground to form a circle. Then, another circle of soil blocks with a slightly smaller diameter was piled on the first circle. The process was repeated to form a pyramid-like oven. It is important to make sure that the soil blocks will not collapse in the process. The visually-impaired students were good helpers to assist the volunteers in building the earth oven. Everyone had a lot of fun.
In the afternoon, the cool autumn weather turned into a warm sunny day. Leading by the volunteers, the visually-impaired students walked into the taro field for the first time to learn how to harvest taro. In the taro field, the volunteers’ job was to find matured taro. The students were then asked to touch and hold the taro stem with both hands, and shake it back and forth until the taro is loosened from the soil. The students were quite engaged in their work and they had a good time!
A full day of food and farming experience made the visually-impaired students fulfilled. The students not only had an in-depth local farming experience with the volunteers, but also tasted the delicious roasted-smell eggs, corns, and sweet potatoes cooked by the self-built earth oven, as well as the sweet taro ball soup made by themselves. Every visually impaired student who participated in the event was happy. They had a lot of fun and were satisfied with the food. In the end, they can also bring home a bag of taro to share with their families. The local food of Dajia is so good!
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