The seed, reniform in
shape, is bivalved, and constitutes about two-thirds of the bulk of the
entire plum, and the inner kernel two-thirds the bulk of the seed.
In consequence of it being such a high tree and growing in such
inconvenient places, I have been unable to procure a specimen of the
flowers.
As soon as the fruit is brought to the village, all the inhabitants
assemble with cutlasses and engage in the work of opening the plums and
removing the kernels. The former are thrown away as useless. The seeds
are evenly spread on the top of a rack of small sticks, under which a
fire is built in the morning, and subjected to the smoke and heat of an
entire day. Toward evening the heat is greatly augmented, and in a
couple of hours the process is completed. The kernels are now soft, and
the oil oozing from them, and while yet in this condition they are
thrown into an immense trough and throughly beaten and mashed with a
pestle.
Baskets, with banana leaves spread in the inside to prevent the escape
of the product, are in readiness, and it is put into them and pressed
down. The next day these baskets are suspended in the sun, and at night
are brought into the houses to congeal. The process is now finished. The
cakes are removed by inversion of the baskets and "bushrope" tied around
them, by which the pieces are carried. As thus prepared, odika is highly
esteemed by the natives as an article of food, being made into a kind of
thick gravy and eaten with boiled plantains.
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