So my family and I decided to delve into farming again after 15 years and it was both fun and hard. Planted cassava last year and harvested them this week and this is a bit of what we got. Though it was hard but we got the job done. For those who don’t know it, cassava is a food source that is eaten in all parts of Nigeria. While cassava is the raw material, the end product is cassava flakes, popularly called Garri.
The preparation from cassava to Garri is very simple. First, peel the cassava, removing the skin with a cutlass or knife.
Then wash thoroughly (some people use sponge) in clean water. Then it is processed (Ground) with a cassava engine. During, the grinding, a little oil is added for yellow Garri while oil is not added for white Garri.
The ground cassava is then packed in sacks and pressed dry to remove all moisture. After about 2 to 3 hours (Depends on how fast it gets dry) it is removed from the sacks and filtered to remove the shaft.
Then it is fried in a basin (called tanso in my tribe) until it gets completely dried and viola! Garri is ready for consumption.
An average Nigerian enjoys Garri in two ways. One is soaked in cold water mixed with groundnut, milk and sugar
while the other is mixed with hot water to form swallow or Eba as it is popularly called here.
Eba can be eaten with any type of soup.
