Thrashing Beans

Some of the farm work was done together on particular crops that were raised communally. We raised red beans and ricked them on the tripods you see in the background and then thrashed them out with sticks on an old piece of tarp. Chacha Mete is in the foreground. Corn, beans, rice and bananas were staples. Cassava was always grown as a hardship crop just in case the rains failed. It would grow in almost any conditions and was practically all starch. The roots would be dug up and ground when dry and used to extend the maize ugali. We in North America actually eat cassava as Tapioca. Machicha, wild greens could be gathered and added to the stew that was eaten with the ugali. Mostly the stew was wild dried meat and the occasional chicken always with onions. Goat was slaughtered for special occasions. Old Mzee Brito who lived next door subsisted for the most part on tiny songbirds that he caught down by the spring where we got water. It was not much more than a mudhole that was used by cattle in the day and wild animals at night. It was also where laundry and bathing was done. It was our drinking water but only after you ran it through a British Berkfield filtre. The two of us guys lived on 5 gallons a day to bathe, wash dishes, do laundry, water the plants and water the goats. It was reused so many times it looked like think chocolate milk when it went on the plants.