Seeking bamboo

I do not seek wealth or fame, just baby bamboo shoots.

We were besieged by mosquitoes and gnats in the damp forest today as we shuffled through the thick layers of leaves looking for more shoots. Today's harvest was deep in the ground and difficult to locate but the price is still good for medium sized shoots. The larger ones, the ones that have already poked through the mulch and are big enough to see, are too big to fetch a good price but can be sold to food manufacturers. We managed close to 60kg and pulled in about $150.

The first two harvests, a couple weeks ago, brought in nearly $600. All in all, by the end of the season, we will have earned around $1000 from our little forest.

Harvesting Bamboo

I set out with my aging relatives under the shade of the giant bamboo (variety: moso dake) with heavy hoes (called touga) to seek precious bamboo shoots. Wearing thin-soled boots so we could feel the tips of the shoots poking out of the deep loam, we walked gingerly up and down the forest floor. Once we detect a spiny tip, we carefully dig around the root and give it a hardy whack with a touga at the point where the sprout begins to grow from its underground lateral root. Bamboo roots spread, just like grass, so the shoots will spring up along the network of underground roots. Most are about 8-10 inches below the ground. It is important to cut the shoot cleanly if they are to be sold in the market. A misplaced "whack" means it will go into the family cooking pot - not altogether a bad thing - but a day's work will earn us a couple hundred dollars or more.

I'll show you how we cook them up and prepare them for market in the next day or so! Stay tuned - this is about as much excitement as we have around here.