Harvesting, Peeling and Grinding my cassava

All through yesterday, my family and I were busy harvesting, peeling and grating our cassava in preparation for garri which is one of the final product of cassava. Yes, cassava can still be processed into fufu, flour and other things but for now, I enjoy processing it into garri.

Growing my own food has always been my thing. Apart from it's health benefits, it also helps us deal with the growing economic hardship in my country. Yes, if everyone should stand up to grow their own food, the prices of staple foods like garri will fall and thus becomes affordable for average Nigerian.

It has happened already in my country. This year, a lot of people went into growing their own food. The goodnews is that the price of garri has fallen from 3500 naira (18.75 per steem) a bucket of garri (3kg) to 1500 naira (9.375 per steem).

This also goes with other staple foods like rice and others. This is the power of growing our own food to tackle the present economic problems. I am proud to be one of those who grew their own food and process same by myself.

It was last year that we bought a piece of land and decided to plant cassava on it. In fact, it is the desire to get a land for farming that moved us to purchase one and it happened at the right time which was still a farming season. We didn't hesitate to farm on it because the season was almost over. We cared for it the much we could until the stage it is now.

Sometimes early this year, we also harvested part of it which we processed into garri and ate and it really served us. Now, we decided to go and harvest all the cassava since we will soon be relocating to another city. We won't be able to come from that city just to harvest cassava.

We wanted to go as early as possible but it began raining very early and so we waited for that rain to subside. We finally left by 9 am that morning. We had invited a friend to join us so as to assist us to be able to harvest all the cassava in that farmland. He honour and by that 8am, he was there already.

We all left and began the harvesting. My husband and Ekemini who is the friend that came to help out started harvesting since they were with matches. I and my daughter and my niece began to gather the harvested ones at a place for easy access. I was closely following Ekemini to gather all that he was harvesting. My niece and daughter were trying to harvest the little they can with the hole we went with as well as to gather the ones my husband was harvesting.

I was also closely monitoring how Ekemini was harvesting it. He was so patient with the cassava that he won't allow anyone one to break a d remain in the ground. He will first try to pull the stem to note the directions the tubers are, then he will carefully use the matchet to dig the ground around the tubers and then pull them out without anyone breaking. If they do break, he will carefully dig to search for them and bring them all out. It is new to me because all I know is to cut the stem to shorten it, then pull out. If the ground is strong, most of them will surely break and I will search for the easy ones and leave the rest a d move forward for others. I really admired how the boy was patiently making sure that no one wasted.

We were able to harvest and gather the whole cassava in that farm in about 4 hours. We went with 4 litres of water to sustain us because we ate before going a d that food sustained us.

Next, we bagged the whole cassava and carried them in batches till we moved out to where our wheelbarrow can be able to drive since the bushes couldn't allow us to drive it onsite farm.

The cassava was much that my husband had to go and bring the vehicle to carry the rest after he Ekemini drove the one in the wheelbarrow home. We waited for them and we finally went home with all.

	Ekemini is carefully digging out the cassava tubers from the ground
The cassava we are gathering together as they are harvesting
	the cassava in the wheelbarrow and myself
Myself and Fortune and Mary resting and waiting for the vehicle

At home, we drank garri with groundnuts and sugar for strength to continue working. Then we started peeling them one by one. All 5 of us did the peeling, myself, Ekemini, Fortune, Marry and my husband. My son went to school and so he was out of the picture. We spent 3 hours plus just to peel them. Then, when it was remaining small, Mary and Fortune began washing them and bagging them. When it was all done, my husband and I drove them to the commercial mill where they were grated and bagged again for drying. We paid 2000 naira (12.5 steem). The operator will grate and dry the cassava. We were there to make sure that the cassava was grated. It was grated 3 times so that it will be fine. Then we helped to put them all in 3 bags for easy drying.

	this was when my husband, Ekemini and myself were peeling the cassava
The washed and bagged cassava in a vehicle to the mill
	in the commercial mill during grating of the cassava
My selfie with my husband at the mill

I took some grated cassava which I wanted to use for akara iwa. Then we were told to be back the next day by 6 pm to carry the dried grated cassava for frying and that I will do when it's time since my husband won't be around. At home, I was able to process and fry the akara iwa with the help of everyone at home and in no time, it was ready and everyone ate to their full. The process is very simple but tiring perhaps because we were already exhausted from the day's work.

I just squeezed the water out, added pepper to taste, salt to taste, onion to taste and a little seasoning cubes. I also added a little palm oil and mixed all together. Then moulded them and fried in batches. I couldn't take pictures of them but trust me, it was yummy! We finished it already.

It is all thanks to the Almighty that we were able to achieve that feet. Thanks to all my family members including our friend, Ekemini who accepted to come around and joined in the work. We will continue when we will fry the garri and hopefully, I will drop update on it.