How I Harvested a 42.7 pound Giant yam from my Yam Patch.

How I Harvested a 42.7 pound Giant yam from my Yam Patch.

________

Other determinants being fair, the size of your harvest depends on the sizes of your seeds. When you sow bigger seeds, on bigger fields, you reap bigger harvests. This is particularly true in yam farming.

December of last year when I harvested my little patch of yam, there was an unusual tuber amongst the harvest. It was large in girth and heavy, but the tail was so stunted that it could pass for a heavy kettlebell. It weighed between fourteen to fifteen pounds. I had plans for it so I set it aside until March of this year. 

This year, I chose a favoured spot on my yam patch. The soil here is dark and loose. It was easy to dig into with my digger. I snipped off the stunted tail to get a large head set (that's more like planting the whole tuber). I took nothing from it for myself. I lowered my seed into the tilled and partially filled hole, made a mound over it, and marked the spot. That was a special seed in there. 

Our yams are mature this year, and I was more than eager to unravel what became of my special seed. Did it yield a smaller tuber? Did it yield a bigger tuber? Did it yield another kettlebell tuber? The only way to find out was to harvest the mature heap. I set out to do that yesterday. 

You all know that harvesting yam is labour intensive. The farmer employs mettle and patience. Great haste breaks the yam, according to an African adage. By this time of the year, around September/October, when the rains haven't gone completely, many farmers employ a practice of yam harvesting known as 'circumcision'. Tubers are carefully excised from the yam plant, leaving the head stumps, and without severing the root mass(at least two-third of the roots). This means that the life cycle of the plants do not come to an end on harvesting. The head stumps will produce smaller tubers in about six months time—this is the duration to the next planting season. These tubers will serve as some of the yam seeds for the next planting season. 

I could tell that I was harvesting a large tuber, but the only way to find out how large it is was to keep digging. Patience! At some point, I was standing, squatting, kneeling, sitting on my bottom, crouching to harvest this tuber. I would suffer the worst of mortification and protracted anxiety to break or injure such a rare tuber. I dug. One hour gone, a gaping hole, my hands swallowed from fingertips to shoulders, yet the bottom seemed unreachable. Patience! I had been digging with my hands and a cutlass, but it was time for any tool longer. A shovel? I would have to be cautious to a fault. I dug some more, proding the tuber to know when it was time to lift it out unhindered. Here comes another dilemma: how to lift out the huge tuber without losing balance and breaking my nose, losing the tuber and breaking it. The tuber could only be lifted, kneeling across the large hole. 

Yes! I did it. I screamed, pirouting in celebration, and attracting my neighbours. They couldn't contain their awe. They said that it looks like a beast, ready to leap on its prey.  It's not everyday we see a giant yam. 

This yam weighs 42 pounds, and measures 24 inches long by 35 inches in circumference. I feared for my kitchen scale while weighing it. The last time I saw someone harvest a giant yam was about a couple of decades ago.

To put the size into perspective, this giant tuber has the same weight as about ten regular tubers. 

All our yams are cultivated strictly by organic farming methods. We do not use chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. 

How I Harvested a 42.7 pound Giant yam from my Yam Patch.

________

Other determinants being fair, the size of your harvest depends on the sizes of your seeds. When you sow bigger seeds, on bigger fields, you reap bigger harvests. This is particularly true in yam farming.

December of last year when I harvested my little patch of yam, there was an unusual tuber amongst the harvest. It was large in girth and heavy, but the tail was so stunted that it could pass for a heavy kettlebell. It weighed between fourteen to fifteen pounds. I had plans for it so I set it aside until March of this year. 

This year, I chose a favoured spot on my yam patch. The soil here is dark and loose. It was easy to dig into with my digger. I snipped off the stunted tail to get a large head set (that's more like planting the whole tuber). I took nothing from it for myself. I lowered my seed into the tilled and partially filled hole, made a mound over it, and marked the spot. That was a special seed in there. 

Our yams are mature this year, and I was more than eager to unravel what became of my special seed. Did it yield a smaller tuber? Did it yield a bigger tuber? Did it yield another kettlebell tuber? The only way to find out was to harvest the mature heap. I set out to do that yesterday. 

You all know that harvesting yam is labour intensive. The farmer employs mettle and patience. Great haste breaks the yam, according to an African adage. By this time of the year, around September/October, when the rains haven't gone completely, many farmers employ a practice of yam harvesting known as 'circumcision'. Tubers are carefully excised from the yam plant, leaving the head stumps, and without severing the root mass(at least two-third of the roots). This means that the life cycle of the plants do not come to an end on harvesting. The head stumps will produce smaller tubers in about six months time—this is the duration to the next planting season. These tubers will serve as some of the yam seeds for the next planting season. 

I could tell that I was harvesting a large tuber, but the only way to find out how large it is was to keep digging. Patience! At some point, I was standing, squatting, kneeling, sitting on my bottom, crouching to harvest this tuber. I would suffer the worst of mortification and protracted anxiety to break or injure such a rare tuber. I dug. One hour gone, a gaping hole, my hands swallowed from fingertips to shoulders, yet the bottom seemed unreachable. Patience! I had been digging with my hands and a cutlass, but it was time for any tool longer. A shovel? I would have to be cautious to a fault. I dug some more, proding the tuber to know when it was time to lift it out unhindered. Here comes another dilemma: how to lift out the huge tuber without losing balance and breaking my nose, losing the tuber and breaking it. The tuber could only be lifted, kneeling across the large hole. 

Yes! I did it. I screamed, pirouting in celebration, and attracting my neighbours. They couldn't contain their awe. They said that it looks like a beast, ready to leap on its prey.  It's not everyday we see a giant yam. 

This yam weighs 42 pounds, and measures 24 inches long by 35 inches in circumference. I feared for my kitchen scale while weighing it. The last time I saw someone harvest a giant yam was about a couple of decades ago.

To put the size into perspective, this giant tuber has the same weight as about ten regular tubers. 

All our yams are cultivated strictly by organic farming methods. We do not use chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides.