When they told me about the harvest in the village that it was so much that they had to work all day for it. I thought it was a mere exaggeration because we've never had a harvest as huge as that. Ok I decided to visit the village yo see how the whole thing is going.
So I got to the village in the evening and everything seemed very normal till the next morning.
"Nne, wake up! It's time to go to the farm!"
It was just 5:30 am. I grumbled, but soon realized we were already running late—we ought to have been ready before then! I finally got up and dressed for the farm, thinking we’d be back around 1 or 2 pm at most.
Ok, the day was set for harvesting Cassava, so we set out on our journey.
It takes one hour to walk to the farm on a normal day without carrying any loads on you head and you have to walk there because the roads are not motor able, and it's not even a smooth path because you have to pass hilly places, streams and all that. Hmm it wasn't an easy journey!
We went there with my mom, uncle, siblings and two more workers to help out. I didn't understand why there were so many people to help out till we got there.
Ok, we finally got there and I realized my uncle did over 60 Plots of land and we have to harvest cassava in all, they already did 2 when I was absent so we had to work the 3rd one that day, and each plot has a huge number of produce.
So we all bent low, with our hoe and Cutlass began to dig out the cassava.
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It took us about four hours to finish harvesting them all for the day, as much as we all could carry back.
Meanwhile after harvesting, we enjoyed some mangoes that we got from the bush and it was a nice way to relax after the long work. But the work was barely even done.
We still had to carry the produces back to another place where we usually stay to process them. And that one is a 45 minutes walk without carrying anything. And I had to carry a 30kg cassava from there, and it took us about 55 minutes to get there with the load
But my siblings and I had to take a few minutes of rest because the journey was too long and my kid sister was complaining of being tired, so I let us all have a rest.
After a few minutes of resting we continued on our journey. And finally we got to the place and we were helped to put the cassava down from our heads.
Huhhhh!!!! I took a deep sigh and sat down very tired, and thankfully Mom got garri and water for us, this meal is always a lifesaver and a strength giver whenever you're tired! So we quickly soaked up some garri and ate to gain strength
After eating, we got back to work—this time to begin the processing of the cassava to make garri.
Let me tell you a little secret about garri: It can never be missing in a Nigerian home. Garri is praised, hyped, and rightfully so. Maybe I’ll give the full details in another post.
That day’s work lasted till night. It was long and hard, but fulfilling. I’ll be sharing the second part, how we process the garri and how it’s used for food, in my next post.
The day’s work lasted till night. It was long and hard, but fulfilling. I’ll be sharing the second part—how we process the garri and how it’s used for food.
The benefits?
Growing our own food is always a joyful thing. Yes the work is tiring but we always smile when the food is ready
Eating fresh from the farm keeps us very healthy and it's way much better than eating processed food
The challenges
Mosquitoes
The heavy load and the long distance
But as we know, in the end, the joy of harvest always outweighs the hardship.
Behind Every Meal of Garri Lies a Story Like This!
And having enough food at home is very satisfying! We still have a lot of harvest work to do that will last for months and we're doing them little by little. I'm happy for the ones we've been able to achieve. I'll see you all in the second part of this post!
I loved the post.
It must be tough working in the village.
Hehe it's what we have to do
I remember back then that my dad use to farm cassava, it wasn't an easy stuff seriously the distance we go just to bring it home Kai.
But it's now a story One has do some certain things just to earn a living.
Weldon ma'am, nice write up.