Good day my people, it's another time @hivegarden and I'm so happy to participate in this week's prompt. Yes, My father was a gardener. In fact, he kept his garden till he passed away in January, this year at 83 years old. He was a person I admired so much because of so many things. His passion for gardening is a topnotch. Even when I told him to low things down because he was not getting younger, he wouldn't listen. He kept telling me that gardening is life.
My father used to explain that working in his garden strengthened him that I could ever imagine. He also used to tell me that everything in His garden were are good for health and some are even medicinal. You know, he had all kinds of food crops, ranging from vegetables, banana, plantain to cassava, to various kinds of fruit. So, I learnt so much from him.
This is our house, and in this house, we still have a garden. I our garden here you can see plantain, scent leaf, bitter leaf, tomatoes, cassava, oranges, mango etc. So, last week I decided to harvest our cassava, I dug it out and peeled it, washed it and cut it two smaller sizes. Then, I soaked it in water for four days. Then, rinsed it again, drained the water and sun dry it. Do you know what I was trying to make? Yeah, cassava flour. Today is the third day of sun drying it. So, after it's well dried, by tomorrow, I will take it to the mill and grind it into smooth powder. That food! It is used to make 'Amala swallow'. Imagine, I learnt the whole process from my father. But the truth is I never thought I could be this good in gardening, because when papa was alive, I didn't show much interest.
In fact, how I suddenly picked interest is funny. Now, I keep our home garden. I clear land, cultivate , tend, harvest and process. Last two weeks, I harvested our tumeric, intending to make it into powder. I can't even remember the last time I bought tomatoes. I really appreciate my dad. I miss him and pray He rest in peace. Gardening is indeed life!
Thanks for stopping by. All pictures are mine.