Cassava is grown in the poorest regions of earth. It is easily grown and will continue to send out rhizomes even after harvesting. It is a perennial plant capable of producing a huge harvest if left to flourish in a sunfilled spot with adequate water and fertilizer. Even rocky areas can be utilized to produce manioc which is its other name.
It is a fast growing root crop high in iron which makes it an ideal food for women and children since iron is a major component to building blood in the human body.
Cassava also know as manioc is a starchy vegatable that can be cooked in many ways. The easiest way to cook this vegetable is by soaking it in saltwater overnight then baking it on the coals of an open fire. Usually the husk gets carbonized but that's alright since carbon absorbs many impurities in the body including heavy metals.
Once fully roasted and cooled, one then opens it like a potato to remove the long fiberous string at the center of the tuber. One could add soy sauce or a few drops of hot sauce.
One can boil the tuber or simply cut it into chunks to be included in stews which includes meats and vegetables with a broth made from beef cubes. These are found in every supermarket.
The quality of the iron is a significant inclusion in every diet.
THIS IS A VERY VERSATILE FOOD THAT HAS SUSTAINED PEOPLE THROUGH SOME VERY DIFFICULT TIMES.
Many students, musicians, artists and other slightly desperate people find their way to the orchards for the few months of labor tending the apples. This starts in May with the thinning of the clusters of green apples so that just two or three are allowed to develop unhindered.
If you are fast and dedicated, the farmer might keep you for the next process called propping. The limbs get so heavy that the orchardist must support the limbs with sticks of old apple branches specially harvested for this purpose.The rest of the summer is spent irrigrating and driving fertilizer sticks around the roots. One disturbing thing is the amount of poison these farmers put out to control the rats that come at night. This is a waste of money designed by the Monsanto people to make money. The tactic is selling by fear. I often thought this to be counterproductive since these critters are easily trapped in a system called Have a Hart box traps.
This is how gypsies help the farmer. Their gift is rodent control. The gypsy has ferrets that are all muscle and slender enough to enter the rats lair and ferret the rats out of the orchard. The ferret is a ferocious little critter. Yet it becomes docile around its handler. Ferrets are especially good around barns and corn bins. In just one night, this soldier will clear the premises of the rat problem. There a few types of ferrets like the black footed ferret and soats which are a smaller variety and much less aggressive. These critters make excellent pets that will guard your children with their lives. The other way is with big cats easily trained to hunt at night. These cats can be had for free at the local humane center. The deer are simply part of the ecosystem and help fertilize the trees. The human scavengers are easily controlled and should be allowed to use the ground fruit for food. These folks are probably useful as workers and hardly a significant factor in the bottom line.
These ideas would keep the orchards flourishing and healthy with a better, safer product to offer the public. The housewife has the ultimate say on Apples. The market place rules the orchards.
All one has to do is show up and start networking to get a placement with an authority from the Employment Center out there in apple country. Once you get a placement you get housing and a very small stipend for food. Eating communally helps a great deal. You work 8 hrs a day then get ready for the next day. I found Lake Chelan area to be the most hospitable with the nicest growers who are truly concerned for your well being. You work in a group. You are given a ladder to carry. This is systematic work that pays minimum wage. This is good decent work for the younger guy or girl who needs extra money for school or children. The work is challenging but you soon become stronger being in the bright sunshine. I always enjoyed the night time gatherings over the open fires and music, singing and fellowship in the work ethic. Just go and see for yourself.
You think you could overcome hardships that the Universe hands you? YOU CAN'T
Right now, for the last few months, I have been dumpster diving at the local markets. We used to do this back in those ugly university days at WWSU at Fairhaven College to feed ourselves. We were always amazed at the cheeses and breadstuffs pitched because it had reached the expiration date. Canned foods and all sorts of fresh produce that had developed small blemishes. An assortment of packaged noodles, spaghetti and sauces found its way into the green maw of the dumpster. We were doing this to feed the animals as well as ourselves. Hard to believe this in the USA. It happens every night after closing time. Now they are locking the dumpsters so no more free food for the poor.
However, they restored my EBT which they should have done sometime ago. Still waiting for my SSI benefits to reach me. The bank which this electronic payment runs through, is called co America Bank. This is the wrong bank to manage Senior issues. They never answer the phone which means one cannot order a new card easily. Email is the only way. Even that falls short with this antiquated system. I will survive in spite of all these setbacks.
I called SSA and cancelled that weird card in favor of a monthly government check. Live and learn. This bank charges at least 4 dollars each time you pull money from an ATM. This is the scam. You will spend way more using that card than by cashing a check at Fred Meyers.
Once the harassment stops and people go about their own lives instead of living vicariously through others, something amazing happens. The ethers clear and deep healing sleep is obtained. Incredible dreams can happen then. On one occasion I was sleeping on the porch of the Honolulu Temple. I saw beautiful dancing girls who were practically naked, wiggling and jiggling in that enticing way. I realized it was the strippers who were dancing at a downtown night club. Just heroin addicts who could simply dance away their lives.
Accessing the spirit world through illegal drugs is a reality for them. Just another lesson for druggies out there. You can cause trouble anywhere on earth. You will die doing so. Then what? Another round of the endless cycle of reincarnation which will be probably a lesser incarnation. Maybe you will become an insect or earthworm which could be your fate if you are so inclined downward.
The life of a devotee is about as tough as it gets. To be at a Hare Krsna Temple living in the brahmachari you must complete 16 rounds of Japa which is 108 X 16=1728 times saying the maha mantra clearly, enunciating each syllable correctly. This must be done each day without fail to maintain your lowly status as temple resident. At each moment disaster can strike and take you out of the bona fide status and you are physically forced to leave. This is done in a manner similar to being thrown out of a monastery. You will never be allowed back in. There is always the tension and the threat of departure at any Hare Krsna Temple.
In the younger days of ISKON there was a senior resident of the brahmachari who had the power of dismissal whom you either avoided like the plague or embraced like a brother depending on his mood each day.
Dressing in pucca style was essential. This was hard to accomplish because of the nature of the dress. The devotee spends much of his day just cleaning and starching his garb. You're given castoffs from wealthy devotees. You must accept other peoples junk or harvest from the clothesline leftovers. You will be given the most demeaning cleaning jobs possible.
The shaved head is a brutal requirement. One can never look good after a shave. If you were living a duplicitous life it is hard to explain this to outsiders. Saying chemo will give you a response of avoidance or worse, complete scorn. The skullcap cur became the only way to handle this even in summer. You've got to hide yourself away from the prying eyes of the public.
There were many days at the Temple when I took the truck and drove to the North Shore, surfing at the various beaches near the blowhole, like Makapu Beach. It was a rough day to be in the water. A typical day though, for Hawaii. There was a tourist bus full of flowery shirted Germans awestruck by the majesty of nature. They all trekked to a rocky overlook that was a good twenty feet above the ocean. As if in slow motion a big set started to unfold on the beach ever closer to this bunch of retirees. They moved back a few paces which was not enough. The last wave in the set is always the biggest. The wave towered over their perch. The crashing wave engulfed them all. They were swept along the rocky outcropping. There was chaos as the bruised and battered bodies were retrieved by the surfers. Many were washed into the ocean. There is only so much they could do besides call the ambulance service, It took hours to account for everyone. No one escaped injury. Never underestimate the power of nature. Nature will win every time.
We all had to work. I chose the juice factory in downtown Honolulu. I would get up at 3 am jump on the English racer and rush off to work using the empty freeways rather than the deserted streets. It cut my travel time down going this way. One morning, I entered the freeway thinking I had a clear shot. A brand new car was zooming down the highway oblivious to a bike rider. Luckily, he managed to steer clear of me but collided with the curb. No damage done to me but his wheels needed to be realigned. I chose a different route to work from then on.
Kanva got to Hawaii by smuggling himself inside the wheel well of a passenger jet. This guy had been there from the beginning with Prabupada. It is an amazing story of survival. I asked him how cold was it. He smiled 'cold enough to freeze the balls on a brass monkey.'
All this is just the beginning. The strict vegetarian diet is a killer in itself. All the goodness has been processed out. There is absolutely no chance of deviation from this norm as everyone takes food from the same place. Cut up fruit in the morning with oatmeal and altar sweets will take away your stamina quickly reducing you to a mind numbing vegetable in short order. This is a no protein diet except for the milk.
Your health suffers. Frequent colds and fever follow sleeping on the hardwood floors without padding. A devotee averages roughly 4 to 6 hrs. per night, if that much. Sometimes no sleep is what you are left with if there is no place left to lie down. Those days are the worst.
The bathroom is about the sickest place imaginable. No soap is ever stocked or clean towels hung. You are lucky if you even get hot water which is never hot, only lukewarm. Everyone is body aware and completely shy about natural functions. There is only one toilet. The population can go up to twenty living in a space about the size of a small bedroom. It helps to keep a small profile.
On the plus side there are moments of intense awareness of life around you. The banyan tree in the backyard is the greenest after Japa. The sky is the bluest, the clouds are the whitest. If you are appreciative of the natural world then ISKON is the place for you. Krsna consciousness is the goal. I became conscious of Krsna. It was just way too much for me.
The Maharaj was the fortunate one. He managed to get a donation of a 52 foot Club Footed Ketch. He used it to preach to the tourists by taking them on free sunset cruises from Ala Moana Harbor. This is a rare solid teak cruising yacht built in Hong Kong in the early 60's when things like that were still possible.
The Jaladuta could handle crowds of tourists. All were fed a Sunday Feast on board and allowed to swim. Watching the sunset is fabulous in Waikiki waters. We had a full ship on those cruise days. Because it was Sunday we could overload the boat without Coast Guard interference.
We captured the meaning of generosity which was so missing in American Society. It was a glorious afternoon when we'd bend on the sails and head towards the setting sun.
The ship was a sedan cruiser .Well cared for by the Maharaj and the sailing crew made up of devotees and pickup sailors. She never gave us a problem. However, one afternoon her transmission broke thus locking her shaft. We had to sail into Ali Wai very carefully.
With exemplary coordination we brought her to the finger dock and tied on without so much as touch of the hull. The whole ship cheered at our seamanship. This was one proud moment in history of sailing at Ala Moana.
