How to Process Cassava Here

Cassava (Acehnese: sweet potato) is a common crop in our area. As an annual plant that is harvested once a year. Cassava is a plant that is tolerant to drought and resistant to weeds. The only thing that can weaken it is long weeds (Aceh: Naleueng lakoë). The roots of the weeds will penetrate the fruit tubers.

Usually people here dig hills and plant cassava. After three months, they will clean the weeds or grass between the cassava trees. Then left until the fruit is large and can be removed.

We used to call cassava a lazy person's plant, because it doesn't need to be cared for every day or week.

If there were no pests such as wild boar, farmers would make a profit once the cassava pods were sold, and cassava has always been a good seller, ever since.

Especially now that cassava has become an important item and a bone of contention in our village. Since several years ago, mothers have been making crackers at home. "Kerupuk Yam" or "Opak Crackers". Cassava is no longer a lazy plant now, but a grab crop.

Here I will not tell scientific things about cassava because it is complete at --lick here-->>> cassava at wikipedia. If you want to know more about cassava, just read on.

I'm here to tell you what we do here with cassava, because it is unknown to people outside our village.

Although we do not make cassava a staple food, because we accept rice as our main food, boiled sweet potato is a food that we often eat. Cassava can make us full, even though the food we consider is not as noble as rice.

Cassava whose fruit is considered old enough, between ten months to one year. Sometimes people are in a hurry, the 8 months old have been removed, but the fruit is still small. If all of that is issued at that age, the farmer's income will decrease.

There are various ways to process cassava for food. If you want to eat, we peel the skin. There are some people who eat cassava stalks raw, the fruit is small as a finger, after being thrown away, the fruit is still not big enough. Most eat half, or a. That's only done when people pull the cassava fruit from the ground. It does not include food.

#There are several ways we eat cassava, including:

1. Boiling. The easiest way to eat cassava is to boil it first. We peel the skin of the cassava and throw it away. Then, we cut the fruit and wash it. After that we boil cassava until cooked. Once cooked, we remove the cassava from the cauldron and separate it from the cooking water. Sometimes, we eat it with grated coconut and a little salt. Sometimes we put granulated sugar in the coconut. Sometimes we put coconut milk and sugar in the cassava stew. So, we drank the broth with us. It becomes compote.
2. Steaming. We slice the cassava into small pieces, and steam the cassava and eat it while boiling it."

1. Make a "boh dhop". Boiled cassava is mashed with grated coconut, then rounded by hand, covered on the outside with flour mixed with water, then fried.

2. Burning. We roast cassava over hot coals without removing the skin. Once cooked, we remove the burnt skin using a knife. Of course our hands will be hit by his fists. Then, we ate roasted cassava. It's fun again, we will eat roasted sweet potatoes or boiled sweet potatoes with sweets from the palm tree (aren).

3. Cut it the size of a finger and then fry it, a type of french fries, with a larger size.
   

4. Make sweet potato chips. Namely slicing the cassava fruit until it is thin like crackers, then frying it.

5. Slice finely along the finger, then fry, then stir with sugar water, stir until the sugar water dries up. This is called 'bada twig'.

6. Finely sliced and chopped, then the spices are mashed and fried, the name is 'ampera'. Only people who have strong teeth can eat it.

7. Cassava crackers. This is what is famous in our village now.

Cassava crackers in our village are made by women, young and old. Of the hundreds of families here, more than half make sweet potato crackers. It's a small cottage industry, but a lot.

Each of them has its own customers, where to get cassava raw materials, and each has its own distributor. The agents took the unripe crackers to be sold to various regional markets and also sent to various other areas in Aceh.

I don't know how since a few years ago, it became their business. Although making crackers has been a culture here for hundreds of years, making crackers for sale outside our area is something new.

The cracker makers turned out to have very little income. To make it also takes a long time, and several stages of the process, but they like it, because they can do it while sitting at home talking to each other. It was leisure work, they assumed.

The process of making cassava crackers in Dayah Paloh, Lhokseumawe, Aceh, Sumatra

1. Cassava fruit is peeled, cleaned with water, then grated. After grating, the cassava that has become the dough is placed on a pile of banana leaves or plastic, each leaf or plastic is given a pinch of cassava mixture (approximately one teaspoon), then flattened until it is thin.

After that, the cassava dough which is thin on leaves or plastic is placed on top of the steamer, then steamed. After a few hours, cooked cassava is steamed. After that cassava is taken down from the stove, then dried all day under the hot sun.

When it rains, the raw materials for cassava crackers that are to be dried in the sun must be taken to a shady place, taken out again when the rain stops. Before they harden to dry in the hot sun, the future crackers are brought up to the roof space, allowed to dry, then placed on top to be leveled.

After it dries and the crackers become hard and stiff, then the unfried crackers can be sold. You can imagine how long it took to make them, but the women in our village really liked the job. It's a trend for them, even if it's a small profit, it takes a long time, but it makes them excited. See, if something is done with love and passion.

Of course, men don't want to do that. Even though you occasionally see men steaming cassava or drying it on the side terrace or in the yard, it's solely to help women do the housework.

Thank you

January 26, 2023

Kind Regards
Thayeb Loh Angen

All Photo Captions: Cassava trees in our garden, Dayah Paloh, Lhokseumawe, Aceh, Sumatra, January 24, 2023. Photo by Jamaluddin-Lodin. With Nikon D7000 Camera, Nikon AF Nikkor 70-300mm Lens.