The world of Tzu Chi September 2020 (Vol.126)

2020 • 09 10 eature dehydrated ingredients. Even when the food reserve was full, Master Cheng Yen told the monastics to go on with the production. The purpose was threefold: to prepare for rainy days, to make extras to give to the needy, and to save the farmers from serious loss. The dried vegetables are dried over a slow fire using an improved old-school dryer that burns wood and does not emit black smoke. The fuel comes from pallets discarded in various seaports. Tzu Chi volunteers took the initiative to collect and bring them back to the Abode and have the wood cut into set sizes to make it convenient for the monastics to feed into the “mouth” of the dryer. Back in the early days when the Abode community was very poor, it was normal for the monastics to wonder if there would be food for their next meal. If they happen to have white radish that day, they would make use of every inch of it including the outer skin and leaf stems, turning them into delicacies. Apart from buying soy products, the monastics would just cook whatever Under the desk lamp, a monastic member is busy picking out the seeds of sacha inchi, a star-shaped fruit known as Incha peanut, used as a nutritional supplement in the Abode.