In my last post I posted a few pictures of a cassava I harvested. In other parts of the world it may be known as manioc. It is a tuber root that is used for a number of things. It can be processed into starch for use in many things, it can be ground into a course powder called gari, it can be ground into flour, it can be fried and made into fries, and it can be pounded with plantain to make fufu.
Here is what a mature plant looks like it is a large shrub I grew it on my swale berm with some of the other perennials like my pawpaws.
I first started out by cutting down the branches. These can be stripped of leaves and cut into shorter sections and stuck in the ground again to propagate them into new plants.
I first used the hoe to clear around the base of the cassava as much as possible. When I started running into the tubers though I switched to a pitch fork to help loosen the soil and diminish my changes of hitting a root.
Before long it is possible to start identifying some of the tubers.
With a lot of digging and prying I finally got the tubers out of the ground.
Here it is completely out of the ground.
I am left with a large crater that then needs to be filled in.
The hole all filled in.
After filling it in I will put one of the stems back in the soil. In no time it will look like this which I harvested one here and replaced the stem about a month ago.
All pictures were taken with my Google Pixel 3xl camera phone.
Here it is also used to make biofuels/ethanol, altho most of it goes into "food products". lol. Fairly easy to grow, and harvests within about 8 months.
Yes this one became a bit over matured on the big tuber it was a little woody. They have not got too into making biofuels from it but there have been a few beers around made from it.
The young leaves of cassava can be eaten too. Setting the tuber to grow horizontally can make them grow longer.
I remember planting some Yams in a sack with 90% pumice sand and the other 10% as dirt, I made the vine creep to our tall "Santol tree" for a full sunshine exposure. The Yam tubers grew big, four and half Kilos each.😉
I did not know you could eat the leaves I will have to see with my wife if there are any local dishes like that.
Sounds like a good way to grow the yam and sweet yield.
During the Nigerian civil war of 1967 to 1970, The Biafrans survived by local dishes made of cassava leaves. This happened after the nigerian troops blocked the United Nations food delivery routes.
However some recent leaves have shown poisonous threats which are believed to have emanated from the recurring use of artificial fertilizers to grow cassava.
A few years ago I had the opportunity to grow bitter yuka to sell it to a beer company, I did this work with my father and my brothers, it was quite hard work.
And in another part of the land we plant sweet yuka that we use to make cassava, it is like a large, very thin cake that is cooked in budare and is toasted and crunchy.
It is always nice to see what you do and how you grow your own food, congratulations.
Good vibes.
Ok nice I would like to try some of those sometime. Thanks for sharing.
I know of this plant especially with what it is used for which we are enjoying today. It's best when one has a garden or farm for plants like this and keep making efforts. This surely would yield a great amount when you are to sell it out for those who are into the business of processing different foods like garri, fufu and the likes.
It's a good thing you are always working on your farm.
Thanks, yes I need to get the right timing for harvest down with a few more of them and then I could probably sell them.
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I bought some of this from our local supermarket and im glad I googled it before trying a bit raw! I had no idea it could be poisonous.
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