Farina prepared from Bauna rootUse: User: Not defined
TDWG use
Storage
Bottles, boxes etc
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Donor
Spruce, Richard
Donor No
80
Donor Date
00/00/1851
Donor Notes
Collector
Spruce, Richard
Collector No
Collection Notes
Collection Date
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Notes:
Source: Spruce, R. (1855) Culture of Mandiocca and preparation of farinha on the Rio Negro. Plantae Amazonicae. Domestic Uses. (pp31-61) and miscellaneous notes,p 184.: Two sorts of farinha are in use 'farinha secca' and 'farinha de agua' the former iss, aid to be almost exclusively used on the coast of Brazil, but on the Rio Negro the latter is more common and it is preferable to the other because it contains nearly all the tapioca (starch) in combination with the other nutritious constituents of the man, diocca root. It is prepared in this way. The roots are put under water in a running stream either in an old Montana trunk or in baskets for the space of three days. A peculiar and most agreeable odour is evident during this process, which indicates the, vicinity of coca? To those who travel near; but neither this odour nor the soluble matter extracted from the roots by the running water appears to possess deleterious properties at least when obviously diluted with air or water, for nowhere do small fish, congregate more than in the neighbourhood of the immersed mandiocca roots. The latter when taken out of water has become so soft that they are easily broken up by hand, the skin readily separates and is thrown away and a small quantity of the fresh root, grated is added to the dough to give it consistency. The dough called Ibehi by the Barre Indians is then strained by putting it into a long bag of plaited strips of Waruma, with a loop at each end the lower loop being passed over the end, the lower loop, being passed over the end of a fixed tough pole and the upper over the pint of another pole serving as a lever by means of which it is stretched out to double its original length and all the liquid parts of the dough run into the interices? and it is rec, eived into a vessel placed beneath. This bag is called 'Tipiti' in Brazil, 'Sebucan' in Venezuela (where it is often made of the hair of a cow's tail). The dough is next put into a large wooden trough (often an old cane broken up by hand and passed thro, ugh a coarse sieve, which separates fro it he fibres of the root and it is now ready for baking. The oven ( 'Yapona'- Brazil and 'Bandari' in Venezuela is a large flat circular clay dish 10 ft or more across, with a raised rim and is supported on all sid, es by a mud wall. On one dish of which is an orifice, is left for introducing fire wood; or it is merely three supports of the same mud masonary so that it resembles a three legged stool. The oven being heated and covered( not thickly) with dough; a wom, an watches it continually turns it over and stirs it about, using a flat wooden shovel called a 'taruba', so that it may adhere only in small grains which when completely baked constitutes farinha or cassava. The farinha of the Rio Negro thus made is ofa, fine golden colour and eaten as crisps or biscuits. If the dough be spread thinly over the oven and laid even with the 'taruba', but not disturbed until it is baked, a large cake is formed called beijié which is pleasant eating when eaten warm but soonb, ecoming stale. In Venezuela they call these cakes cajan and use them almost exclusively.x0Dx0Ax0Dx0AOf drinks made from mandiocca the simplest is Itribé which is merely farinha mixed with water when it speedily swells out to twice its original size and in drinki, ng it, in a small cuya, a bit of stick or the finger is used to stir it about.x0Dx0A