"You're going to dig cassava, right? Let's go too. "Xu Bimei may not know what cassava is like, and she also wants to join in the fun. Others may have heard of it, or even eaten it, but most of them have never seen the real thing, and they want to see it.

"Huh! If you don't dig it, those cassavas will be the next year. The second aunt smiled.

It is not surprising that cassava is not surprising every other year, and the countryside will often use cassava every other year as a metaphor for those children who repeat grades, which can be regarded as a wink word! Although cassava will be much thicker in the next year, it means that the first year is not growing well. It's the same with studying, even if you have good grades after repeating a grade, people will still remember that you have repeated a grade, and it took a year more than others.

"I've been here for so long, and I haven't seen what cassava looks like!" Li Quan also touched his head, saying that he had not seen it.

"Cassava has very low land requirements, no matter how barren it is, it can almost grow, so everyone generally plants it in the mountains, and you haven't been up there, so naturally you haven't seen it." Chu Jiaqiang said with a smile.

Everyone set off with hoes and baskets on their shoulders and climbed towards the mountains. The old woman Hong wanted to stay at home to take care of Xiaobao, but Xiaobao was also clamoring to go, so Chen Wu had to go with the little guy on his back.

When you get to the place, you see it. Stems erect, woody, 2-5m high, single-leafed alternate palmate deeply lobed, papery, lanceolate, shrub-like plant. Chu Jiaqiang told them that these are cassava.

Cassava is one of the world's top three potato species and is widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions. In the southern subtropical region of China, cassava is the fifth largest crop after rice, sweet potato, sugarcane and corn.

It plays an important role in crop layout, feed production, industrial applications, etc., and has become the main processed starch and feed crop widely cultivated. Cassava is the tuber root of cassava, a plant of the Euphorbiaceae family, which is conical, cylindrical or spindle-shaped, fleshy and starch-rich.

Cassava flour is of good quality and can be eaten or industrially made into alcohol, fructose, glucose, etc. All parts of it contain cyanide, poisonous, and the fleshy part of fresh potatoes must be blistered, dried and other detoxification processing before they can be eaten. Because fresh potatoes are perishable and deteriorate, they are generally processed into starch, 1000 chips, 1000 potato grains, etc. as soon as possible after harvest for storage.

Digging cassava is also a hard work, many cassava grow deeper, and the mountains are generally harder, and people who don't have some strength can't dig a lot.

Chen Wu raised his hoe and shoved down a cassava tree on the side. Before Chu Jiaqiang and the others could open their mouths to stop it, that guy had already dug several hoes in a row. At a glance, you can tell that it is an inexperienced person, and it must have been dug up. Sure enough, by the time it was dug up, a cassava broke two or three knots.

"You can't dig like this, don't do it yet, I'll demonstrate." Chu Jiaqiang said.

After speaking, he first scraped a layer of soil about 20 centimeters thick within one meter around the cassava path, and then put the hoe aside. Hold the cassava path with both hands and slowly pull it up. If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of the earth popping below.

Seeing Chu Jiaqiang's whole cassava plant pulled up, and five or six wrist-thick and half-meter-long cassavas were still firmly growing under the plant, Zhou Furong couldn't help but say: "It doesn't seem to be difficult!" ”

"Then you give it a try!" Chu Jiaqiang said depressedly. When pulling it up, you must pay attention to the strength and feel the situation below, otherwise it may also be disconnected. Once it's broken, if you dig a big hole there to find out, it's going to be troublesome.

It turned out that Chu Jiaqiang's guess was right, and others did the same. In addition to Wan Lao, these veteran people can still pull it up completely, and those girls have no strength and can't pull it up. The men used too much force, and some of them pulled up a single stick, and the cassava was all left underneath.

The girl had no choice but to work with her second aunt, cut off the cassava handle with a knife, knocked the mud attached to the cassava surface for a thousand times, and then folded it in a basket.

"Huh! These cassavas also have fruits. It's weird! The fruit grows outside, and the cassava to be eaten is under the soil. Do you say that you can eat these fruits? Xu Bimei found a few green fruits. These fruits, like star fruit, are petal-by-petal, but only the size of a thumb.

"You can't eat it, don't eat it. Cassava is poisonous all over its body. The second aunt hurriedly said.

Others are puzzled, since cassava is one of the three major potato species, how can it be poisonous? Toxic everyone still eats? Unreasonable!

"Of course, it's not poisonous. Even cattle should not eat more of its leaves and paths, otherwise it will be poisoned and sleep, and even die. We eat cassava, and if we don't soak it in water, we can't eat more, we must remember. The second aunt reminded in a deep voice.

In the countryside, there used to be frequent cases of children being poisoned by eating cassava. Children love to bake sweet potatoes in the wild, and sometimes by this time, when the sweet potatoes have passed, they dig cassava. Eating a small amount may be fine, but eating too much will be bad!

Professor Wen added with a smile: "The toxins of cassava are generally concentrated in the skin, and when you cook and eat them, you remove the skin, and you will be fine." ”

"Does anyone eat cassava without peeling?" Chen Xiang is even more strange.

"Cassava has two layers of skin, the first of which is what you see on the outside that is in contact with the soil, and it's easy to come off. The second layer is edible. In the past, farmers lived a hard life, and even rice bran could be eaten, and this tapioca peel that tasted good naturally would not be thrown away. Chu Jiaqiang explained.

Jackton tried to scrape off some of the skin, and saw the red skin inside. Chen Wu glanced at the past, and said in surprise again: "Why is it red?" How did that white starch come from? Bleach? ”

"There? It's also just a layer of red skin, and it's also white on the inside. "Hong Lao really doesn't know how to say that these young people are good, very common sense things, and they are all making a fuss.

"There are two kinds of cassava, one is white-skinned, which is not delicious, and is generally used to beat cassava flour to feed pigs and so on. The other one is this red-skinned one, and the taste is okay. Chu Jiaqiang popularized knowledge with them.

When they heard that it tasted good, many people clamored to go back and make a meal. The second aunt smiled and agreed, it's okay to eat one or two meals of cassava, but if you eat two more meals, you will feel very disgusted, and it is not as good as sweet potatoes.

"In fact, speaking of which, their Gaoxin City is also the hometown of cassava in China. After the Opium War, cassava was introduced from abroad, and the first batch was planted in the city of Gaoxin, Tamen, and then because of its high yield and low land requirements, it soon spread throughout the south. Professor Wen said.

There is great power in numbers, this is true, the second uncle and the second aunt have a deep understanding. In the past, he asked two people to dig a piece of cassava, and he might have gone for half a day, but now it can be done in less than an hour.