Cathy Isom has a bit of information about a wonderful tropical plant that is practically pest free and drought resistant. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
Cassava is a wonderful, yet little known tropical root crop. It’s full of starch and carbohydrates, so it provides a nutritious meal, which is why its third-largest source of carbohydrates in tropical areas.
Cassava is relatively simple to grow and one plant gives you an extremely generous harvest because it keeps growing from the same plant. The plant is practically pest free and drought resistant. As well as being an important staple crop, cassavas are full of nutrients and are good for digestion. The drawback is cassavas contain large amounts of cyanide, so you must cook it in order to eat it. On the bright side, the cyanide is one of the reasons cassava has few pests. Cassavas also store well and freeze well.
There are two major varieties of cassavas: sweet and bitter. Cassava is from tropical environments and it needs 8 months of heat to grow well, ideally zones 8-11. When it gets cold, cassavas freeze to the ground, but they’ll come back to life and gift you with wonderful roots and leaves.
I’m Cathy Isom…