Making Casava Bread (I am on the far right)

Here in the jungles of Kaikan the people make cassava bread. It's not like bread, it's more like crackers. This is one of their main foods. They make it and it is very complicated. While the mothers make cassava bread the children swing in their hammocks in the kitchen and watch. I helped our neighbor make cassava bread one time. First they have to grow the cassava on their farm. Cassava is a root that grows underground. In some places they call it yucca. They have to walk several hours to get to their farm. When the cassava is ready, they dig it up and carry it home in a warishi. This is a basket like a backpack that they make. They peel all the cassava and wash it. Then they grate it. When they are done they have a big pile of grated cassava in a big container about the size of a small canoe. It looks like a huge pile of mashed potatoes. Then they

A Matapi for Making Casava Bread

put it in a matapi. This is a long basket like a tube. It reminds me of those things you put your finger in. When you pull it to try to get your finger out, it gets tight and you can't get your finger out. You have to push it up in order to get your finger out. The matapi is like that. They push it to make it short and then put the cassava in it. Then they stretch it and that squeezes the juice out of the cassava. They keep stretching the matapi tighter and tighter till they get all the juice out. The juice is poisonous if you drink it raw. They save the juice and boil it for a long time until it gets thick. It tastes like molasses. They use it to cook with. When all the juice is out of the cassava, they let it dry in the sun. Then they sift it to get all the lumps out. Then they put it in a thin layer on a big round metal thing with a fire under it. When it gets hot, it sticks together, and they have a big, round, flat cassava bread. They put them on their roof to dry and then they eat them. Aren't

Drying Casava Bread)

you glad you can just go to the store and buy crackers?

When we want to buy something at the store, we get in our canoe and go downstream and across the river to Jorge's store in Venezuela. We buy rice, sugar, flour, oil and other things there. But we can't buy fresh fruits or vegetables. Sometimes he has tomatoes and potatoes. We pick big green leaves from our yard to cook and eat. They are good. I miss eating salads. When I get back to the States, I'm going to go to a salad bar and eat a BIG salad!

Well I have to go, BYE.

Kara

You may write to Kara at: gates@andrews.edu

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Last Updated: May 13, 1997