Cassava Factory

Local Product - Petit-Bourg

Caribbean societies used the cassava root as a primary food source. The method for preparing “kassav,” a thin cake made from cassava flour stuffed with grated coconut, remains unchanged. The first mandatory step is to neutralize the toxins in the cassava tuber by extracting the juice under pressure. The peeled tubers are then fermented in tubs, and then shredded on a metal grater. The resulting paste is pressed, passed through a sieve, and broken up before being placed on a turntable (large circular plate heated on cast-iron boilers) in order to dry the flour, stirring frequently with a long wooden paddle (the “rabot”). The flour is then gathered into bags and sold. Colonists soon replaced bread with cassava cakes. Today they are eaten stuffed with coconut or fruit preserves.