Yucca (cassava) for food?

I'm wondering about using the root of the yucca for food. I know it's in the grocery stores but I have never talked to anyone who uses it. I know from experience that I will not be able to eradicate this plant from my small gardening space so I think I should start using it for food. Anyone do this? Is it a complicated process?

what an interesting idea! I don't have any idea, but I'd be interested in knowing the answer. :)

Yeah Susy I am trying to get the maximum yield from my small space and those yucca take up some real estate. Lets hope someone knows

I wonder if maybe you should ask in a different forum as well ? Maybe in SW, or succulents, or, I don't know, organic or vegetable gardening?

Hey yeah-recipes maybe

Well, I eat cassava :) They actually taste very good (at least for me) :) I was born in the Philippines and this is one root crop that we are abundant of. Anyway, I just peel them and boil until soft. But I'm getting lazy buying fresh so I just go to an oriental store and buy them frozen.

I also buy grated cassava (frozen, in pack). I make cassava pie/cake out of it. I mix it with coconut milk, condensed milk and evaporated milk then bake it. If you want, I can make one and have you try it. If it suits you, I'll give you the recipe (very easy to make). Since you live in Lynwood, maybe we can do this someday :) I live in Redmond, by the way (moved from Monroe). Let me know!

Aelana

Google yucca recipies ..there are lot's of ways to prepare it and many recipes on the internet.

Well thank you aelana. From googling this I get some confusing information. The spelling is in question-yucca or yuca- and whether what we have growing here is manioc or not. A mexican restaurant at 3rd Place Books in Lake Forest Park offers a deep fried yuca. They couldn't tell me if that is what we grow here.

I have now read enough to say with certainty that the yucca that grows in the PNW is not cassava. Cassava or manioc or tapioca are of the yuca or manihot(sp) and is not a sword shaped leaf plant but is "leafy". In the grocery stores is a fresh "yucca" root that looks like the root of the plant that grows in our gardens in the NW. That is the one I'm curious about. I can't make it into tapioca, I know that now but what can we do with that root? And I'm not 100 percent sure that that is the same kind of root that grows in my garden, they just look alot alike. Still curious if anyone has tried that root called yucca that's in the stores.

30 years ago I lived in NYC. I absolutely loved going to the ethnic shops and trying new things to eat. I used to buy yucca roots at a Mexican market. they kind of looked like long rough brown potatoes. I asked how people ate them, and was given various recipes. I chose the easiest recipe and baked them like a potato. Delicious! The skin was too tough to eat. You do need to be careful. If you have certain kinds of cassava, the plant is toxic unless prepared properly, and cultures who used these roots devised clever ways to detoxify them, to avoid being poisoned. I wonder how they figured it out... i do not know how you could be sure you did not have the toxic type, unless you know the source.