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28.4.12

YO, YUCCA & YACHTS

YO means simply “I” which is what I am going to concentrate on next month! 


YUCCA The first time I saw a yucca in flower I was amazed – the yuccas I’d seen in England were pot plants. Then I saw these strange roots for sale and learned they were yucca too – known in some places as manioc or cassava. You can boil it and serve with a mojo (sauce) – it’s rather bland on its own – and it thickens a stew beautifully. It can be fried in slices or made into chips – in fact you can treat it as you would a potato. Apparently you can also put the flower petals in a salad and eat the fruit.














YAMS are another favourite, though yam is what my OH calls them – batatas is the Canarian word, and in England you know then as sweet potatoes. I love them, though it’s difficult to tell whether I’m buying blanca or naranja unless I scratch one – I prefer the nananja. Its orange flesh tastes divine, particularly when roasted like a parsnip, and like the yucca they go beautifully in a stew or curry.




YACHTS are everywhere here – not surprising on an island – and some of them cost more than a house. There was speculation in a local newspaper last week about who owns a luxury yacht in Los Cristianos harbour – if it’s going begging I’ll take it off their hands!






Many little fishing harbours, like this one in Las Galletas, have gone up-market in recent years with marinas, but alongside the luxury yachts you will still find the local fishing boats, and the beaches will still be scattered with battered rowing boats.





A friend of ours is repairing his yacht after sailing it across from America singlehanded. I typed up his personal log of the 40-day journey, and although he makes light of it, I was scared silly by the laconic way in which he wrote of a tanker just missing him, or of losing half his drinking water, or climbing the mast to effect a repair. At least he wasn’t attacked by pirates.


YOUNG As the OH is fond of saying, with such a name we will always be young. Shame it’s not true, and the body lets us down more often, but age is a state of mind too. So as the YEARS pike up inexorably, nil desperandum!   


10 comments:

  1. I think we all need a Yo month after this mammoth A to Z! I didn't know you could eat Yukka. I knew you could cut yourself quite badly on the leaves though! I love Yams and talking of staying young, they are said to be good for menopausal symptoms (not that I'd know anything about that!!)
    A to Z of Nostalgia

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  2. Ros - my menopausal days are history, and I didn't know you could eat yucca either till I found it in a shop here. You're never too old to learn, I guess.

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  3. You've probably mentioned it, but did you illustrate the letters yourself?

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  4. Obviously, your body doesn't know it's name. Its obeying the laws of nature. No use procastinating. Thanks for that information and great pictures. Even though I lived in Australia once with wild yuccas, I never tried to capture one and eat it. Hehe.

    http://francene-wordstitcher.blogspot.com

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  5. I love yacht-watching in marinas. My kids and I compete to find the largest ones.

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  6. Yes Helen I did illustrate the letters - can't you tell? They're ok but hardly professional standard!
    And Francene - you should go to Scotland for the haggis hunting.

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  7. I love sweet potato, so good for you too.

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  8. Yucca is such an interesting plant. And I love curried yams, although I call them sweet potatoes. I'm sure that's wrong, but that's how I grew up :-) They are a Thanksgiving staple here, and many people bake them with marshmallows on top!

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  9. I once had the good fortune of being a guest passenger on a yacht for several hours. I remember it being one of the loveliest afternoons of my life. As for yams, love 'em. And yucca, never tried it. :D

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  10. Wow, what a yacht!! It would just be fun to tour it one time! Just one more letter left!! Its been a great challenge!

    betty

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