A season to blow ‘mouth organ’ sets in
- Details
- Category: Around and about
- Written by Sikiru M. Jimoh
- Hits: 1291
Yes, it is corn’s season. From roasting to boiling, those who deal in this petty but lucrative business are all over strategic spots, once again and as it is done annually, ‘helping’ those with lean pockets to beat the hard times. When roasted or boiled maize known as mouth organs. The entire Nigerian population find corn a favourite meal in the farming season.
Young men in droves who could not find the jobs of their hearts’ desire have joined women and children in the corn business.
At the Kawo market in Kaduna, a lady who gave her name as Rukaya said she is a student of Islamic school but she roasts corn in the rainy season to boost her mother’s financial strength. Rukaya said her mother can no longer withstand the stress in the business therefore she bought the cobs for her to roast.
“She tells me the cost price so that I will know whether I have made profit after selling the whole items. She collects the money realized and goes to the market for more. This is how I assist her financially,” she said.
Sitting beside Rukaya is also Safiya who said she is an all season corn roaster. She said she started roasting corn before this year’s rains set in. Safiya said during scarcity of corn, irrigation farmers who cultivate corn during dry seasons always supply her parents at home.
‘’My mother has her own trade but she assists me in accountability to know whether I am making progress. This is how I boost her efforts to finance education of the younger ones.
“Our business is never obstructed by law enforcement agents,” she said.
Contrary to the motives of the other two, Lubabatu said the corn she roasts is her personal business. She said all categories of people eat roasted corn, adding that there is no much profit in corn roasting business especially when situation demanded that one spends on health.
“There are days that I go home with N500 when rain disturbs the business. My parents have however warned me to stop the business and return home when the weather is too hot and wet. After sales, she gives me some cash in case I want to buy something.”
In the neighbourhood of Kawo bus stop in Kaduna, a widow Mama Enoh said she has been roasting corn for over 20 years because she has five children to cater for.
‘’If you are not educated in this country, you will suffer. If the government cannot employ the graduates, what work will they give someone like me apart from cleaning? Can I clean office to shoulder responsibilities of five children and extend some kindness to my daughters who are married without job?’’
Mama Enoh said she preferred roasting corn than taking a job that would not take care of her monthly feeding.
“Many people including motorists patronize me and say they like my corn because they are always hot and are the day’s harvest.“
Speaking on the source of her fresh corn and the peculiar aroma, Mama Junior said she resorted to buying fresh corn from the farms 20 years ago when her husband died and life became unbearable for her.
‘’I go to the farms early in the morning and resume roasting by 1pm to close by 10pm as my daily routine. I do this business to pay my children’s school fess.
“We also boil maize in equal quantities in Kaduna and we have never had any encounter with the law enforcement agents for running our business.”
At Pyakasa in the FCT, Madam Tani sells the day’s harvest. According to her, of corn she buys a bag for N3,000 and the business started in May. “There is no uniformity in maturity and weight of the corn and when they are sold, we often made little gain but seldom run at a loss,” she said.
Unlike in Kaduna where her counterparts enjoy unhindered access, it is not the same with Tani and many others of her kind. For them, the fear of officials of FCT Environmental Protection Board is the beginning of their wisdom in this business. The FCT environmental law has no provision for activities that would allow residents to set fire by the roadside and roast corn as it is obtainable in many cities of the country. For this reason, she said about 90 per cent of corn in the territory is boiled from homes while those who roast by the roadside do so in manner that they can run away with their bowls of corn when task force men come chasing them.
“But who can carry fire on her head and run away with it? On many occasions, when FCT task force seize my items, I burst into tears when I remember the money, labour, my children and expectation for profit.”
There are some people who are always waiting for the corn season. Utako-based Mr Ridwan Haroun who said his favourite meal in the rainy season is corn is one of them.
“I eat it very well in the rainy seasons. It has no collateral and makes you healthy and strong. If you arrive home after eating corn, even your wife will know that you have eaten something outside. I prefer roasted corn to boiled type. It is a natural way of eating corn. That was the way we ate them when we were farmers in the village. I only look for boiled corn when I am in a dusty environment.”
A Kaduna-based civil servant Fatima Garba told Around and About that roasted maize is her choice since the time she grew to develop interest in the cereal. “Roasted cobs have more pleasant aroma than boiled ones. I only eat cooked corn in the absence of roasted ones and it has to be red hot from the pot,” she said.
Shehu Aminu, a trader, said he has stopped patronising restaurants in the rainy season when corn was everywhere and heat coming from the roaster’s fire was there assuring him of safety health.
“No one is sure of the sources of the water used in boiling corn. We have heard of dirty water on many occasions; not dirty fire,” he said.
Shehu said the aroma of roasted corn in the environment is enough to tell passersby that something good is being made.
A Pyakasa resident Mr Vincent said any married man could eat roasted corn without his wife raising an eyebrow. “Whenever I eat at a restaurant, my wife expresses some bitter feelings,” he said.
Vincent said in the rainy season, women who would not allow their husbands to eat outside home are found at the roadside selecting fresh corn serially to be roasted for them.
He said roasted corn is eaten by all Nigerians during the rainy season. Therefore whenever he goes home and tells his wife that he ate roasted corn, she would request for hers.
“There is no day I do not buy roasted corn for my wife when going home. But she has never requested for any meal prepared by a cook outside- no matter how excellently it was made.”
Another Pyakasa resident, Madam Masaka also a dealer in the business said the task force men had arrested her and some of her colleagues severally. On one of such ocassions they lacked the courage to face prosecution at the mobile court to claim their items worth N3,000. She said they cried because they knew the items would never return to them.
“Sellers of boiled corn suffer too much in the FCT,” she lamented.
Musa Kalle transporter and farmer of corn at Gada Biu in Kwali Local Government of the FCT during the weekend disclosed that there many of such farms at Gada Biu in Kwali Local Government from where he drove on terrible roads to supply Pyakasa women who cook and sell them in the FCT.
Yahaya Soja is a corn farmer in Sabon Birnin Daji in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State. He said he has 25 years experience in farming behind him and his main crop is corn. He said he harvested, sold and bought the cereal around April to May and October annually.
“I sell the first harvest to get money for fertilizer for the second. When I harvest the second one, I sell larger quantity of it; give some to friends while my family eats the remaining. When I harvest and sell the third, I use the money to buy dry ones that I store for consumption in the dry season. It is from this reserve that I get seeds to plant when another rainy season approaches,” he said.
Ayuba Abdullahi , another farmer who highlighted problems of farmers, said they needed to cultivate corn earlier to raise funds to boost production of the second phase because fertilizer becomes hot cake during farming season. He said the item always disappeared into the hands of local government councillors who in turn convey them to market centres to sell at exorbitant rates.
He disclosed that for the past 20 years, he has never bought fertilizer directly from the local government, instead farmers buy from the retailers.
Apart from high prices of fertilizer, Abdullahi lamented the terrible roads they contend with to transport the commodity from the farms to major markets. During the rainy season he said a journey that should be covered within 25 minutes takes two hours or more. Bad road contribute to the rise in price per bag of corn at Kawo market because if the roads are good the market would consequently be flooded and a bag of corn containing between 150 and 1220 cobs sold between N900 and N700 would be cheaper.
Chief of the corn market in Kawo, Kaduna is 85-year-old Alhaji Umar Bawa said he has spent over 18 years as head of the unit. He said all the products of corn, pop-corn was the most popular. He said while zea mays was used for waina, brabisco, biski and tuwon masara in northern Nigeria, many families in the country had equally explored the crop and discovered that the dry form of it could be mixed and grinded with less quantity of dry cassava to serve as close substitute to semovita.
For the millions of Nigerians who consume maize or corn or whichever, the following phrases may sound strange, but this is not something to worry about. The Encyclopaedia disclosed that the cereal- maize- with its scientific name as zea mays originated from Wikipedia in North America where it was first known as ordinary grass.
The source added that the cereal is called maize in the United States, Canada and Australia but generally known as corn in English speaking countries.
“It is a pre-historic domesticated grass. The Aztecs and Mayans cultivated it in numerous varieties in central and southern Mexico to cook or grind in a process called nixtamalization. Maize spread through much of agro-activities of the Americans. Between 1250 AD and 1700 AD, nearly the entire American continent had gained access to the crop. A significant population of the region later developed a great trade network based on surplus and varieties of maize. After European contact with the Americans in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, explorers and traders carried maize back to Europe and introduced it to other countries through trade. Its ability to grow in distinct climates and its uses were so much valued that it spread faster to the rest of the world.”
Owing to its economic and domestic values, corn is planted in all parts of Nigeria particularly during the rainy season. Noted for its economic value today, Nigerian women see the season of corn as a time for supplementing their sources of income.
The plant thrives well on loamy and humus soils and requires annual rainfall of 12 inches.
Cultivation of corn begins by making ridges. In the traditional way of planting corn, the farmer uses his cutlass to make holes along each ridge and drops equal number of corn-seeds into each hole. In less than a week, the shoot system of the monocotyledonous plant appears gradually on the soil surface. The farmer inspects his crops from the onset to se whether more than the required numbers of seeds are germinating from holes. Where this happens, thinning -removal of extra ones from a standing bunch- is applied for uniformity and to make the crops germinate perfectly.
A season to blow ‘mouth organ’ sets in
Category: Around and about Written by Sikiru M. Jimoh Hits: 1291
Yes, it is corn’s season. From roasting to boiling, those who deal in this petty but lucrative business are all over strategic spots, once again and as it is done annually, ‘helping’ those with lean pockets to beat the hard times. When roasted or boiled maize known as mouth organs. The entire Nigerian population find corn a favourite meal in the farming season.
Young men in droves who could not find the jobs of their hearts’ desire have joined women and children in the corn business.
At the Kawo market in Kaduna, a lady who gave her name as Rukaya said she is a student of Islamic school but she roasts corn in the rainy season to boost her mother’s financial strength. Rukaya said her mother can no longer withstand the stress in the business therefore she bought the cobs for her to roast.
“She tells me the cost price so that I will know whether I have made profit after selling the whole items. She collects the money realized and goes to the market for more. This is how I assist her financially,” she said.
Sitting beside Rukaya is also Safiya who said she is an all season corn roaster. She said she started roasting corn before this year’s rains set in. Safiya said during scarcity of corn, irrigation farmers who cultivate corn during dry seasons always supply her parents at home.
‘’My mother has her own trade but she assists me in accountability to know whether I am making progress. This is how I boost her efforts to finance education of the younger ones.
“Our business is never obstructed by law enforcement agents,” she said.
Contrary to the motives of the other two, Lubabatu said the corn she roasts is her personal business. She said all categories of people eat roasted corn, adding that there is no much profit in corn roasting business especially when situation demanded that one spends on health.
“There are days that I go home with N500 when rain disturbs the business. My parents have however warned me to stop the business and return home when the weather is too hot and wet. After sales, she gives me some cash in case I want to buy something.”
In the neighbourhood of Kawo bus stop in Kaduna, a widow Mama Enoh said she has been roasting corn for over 20 years because she has five children to cater for.
‘’If you are not educated in this country, you will suffer. If the government cannot employ the graduates, what work will they give someone like me apart from cleaning? Can I clean office to shoulder responsibilities of five children and extend some kindness to my daughters who are married without job?’’
Mama Enoh said she preferred roasting corn than taking a job that would not take care of her monthly feeding.
“Many people including motorists patronize me and say they like my corn because they are always hot and are the day’s harvest.“
Speaking on the source of her fresh corn and the peculiar aroma, Mama Junior said she resorted to buying fresh corn from the farms 20 years ago when her husband died and life became unbearable for her.
‘’I go to the farms early in the morning and resume roasting by 1pm to close by 10pm as my daily routine. I do this business to pay my children’s school fess.
“We also boil maize in equal quantities in Kaduna and we have never had any encounter with the law enforcement agents for running our business.”
At Pyakasa in the FCT, Madam Tani sells the day’s harvest. According to her, of corn she buys a bag for N3,000 and the business started in May. “There is no uniformity in maturity and weight of the corn and when they are sold, we often made little gain but seldom run at a loss,” she said.
Unlike in Kaduna where her counterparts enjoy unhindered access, it is not the same with Tani and many others of her kind. For them, the fear of officials of FCT Environmental Protection Board is the beginning of their wisdom in this business. The FCT environmental law has no provision for activities that would allow residents to set fire by the roadside and roast corn as it is obtainable in many cities of the country. For this reason, she said about 90 per cent of corn in the territory is boiled from homes while those who roast by the roadside do so in manner that they can run away with their bowls of corn when task force men come chasing them.
“But who can carry fire on her head and run away with it? On many occasions, when FCT task force seize my items, I burst into tears when I remember the money, labour, my children and expectation for profit.”
There are some people who are always waiting for the corn season. Utako-based Mr Ridwan Haroun who said his favourite meal in the rainy season is corn is one of them.
“I eat it very well in the rainy seasons. It has no collateral and makes you healthy and strong. If you arrive home after eating corn, even your wife will know that you have eaten something outside. I prefer roasted corn to boiled type. It is a natural way of eating corn. That was the way we ate them when we were farmers in the village. I only look for boiled corn when I am in a dusty environment.”
A Kaduna-based civil servant Fatima Garba told Around and About that roasted maize is her choice since the time she grew to develop interest in the cereal. “Roasted cobs have more pleasant aroma than boiled ones. I only eat cooked corn in the absence of roasted ones and it has to be red hot from the pot,” she said.
Shehu Aminu, a trader, said he has stopped patronising restaurants in the rainy season when corn was everywhere and heat coming from the roaster’s fire was there assuring him of safety health.
“No one is sure of the sources of the water used in boiling corn. We have heard of dirty water on many occasions; not dirty fire,” he said.
Shehu said the aroma of roasted corn in the environment is enough to tell passersby that something good is being made.
A Pyakasa resident Mr Vincent said any married man could eat roasted corn without his wife raising an eyebrow. “Whenever I eat at a restaurant, my wife expresses some bitter feelings,” he said.
Vincent said in the rainy season, women who would not allow their husbands to eat outside home are found at the roadside selecting fresh corn serially to be roasted for them.
He said roasted corn is eaten by all Nigerians during the rainy season. Therefore whenever he goes home and tells his wife that he ate roasted corn, she would request for hers.
“There is no day I do not buy roasted corn for my wife when going home. But she has never requested for any meal prepared by a cook outside- no matter how excellently it was made.”
Another Pyakasa resident, Madam Masaka also a dealer in the business said the task force men had arrested her and some of her colleagues severally. On one of such ocassions they lacked the courage to face prosecution at the mobile court to claim their items worth N3,000. She said they cried because they knew the items would never return to them.
“Sellers of boiled corn suffer too much in the FCT,” she lamented.
Musa Kalle transporter and farmer of corn at Gada Biu in Kwali Local Government of the FCT during the weekend disclosed that there many of such farms at Gada Biu in Kwali Local Government from where he drove on terrible roads to supply Pyakasa women who cook and sell them in the FCT.
Yahaya Soja is a corn farmer in Sabon Birnin Daji in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State. He said he has 25 years experience in farming behind him and his main crop is corn. He said he harvested, sold and bought the cereal around April to May and October annually.
“I sell the first harvest to get money for fertilizer for the second. When I harvest the second one, I sell larger quantity of it; give some to friends while my family eats the remaining. When I harvest and sell the third, I use the money to buy dry ones that I store for consumption in the dry season. It is from this reserve that I get seeds to plant when another rainy season approaches,” he said.
Ayuba Abdullahi , another farmer who highlighted problems of farmers, said they needed to cultivate corn earlier to raise funds to boost production of the second phase because fertilizer becomes hot cake during farming season. He said the item always disappeared into the hands of local government councillors who in turn convey them to market centres to sell at exorbitant rates.
He disclosed that for the past 20 years, he has never bought fertilizer directly from the local government, instead farmers buy from the retailers.
Apart from high prices of fertilizer, Abdullahi lamented the terrible roads they contend with to transport the commodity from the farms to major markets. During the rainy season he said a journey that should be covered within 25 minutes takes two hours or more. Bad road contribute to the rise in price per bag of corn at Kawo market because if the roads are good the market would consequently be flooded and a bag of corn containing between 150 and 1220 cobs sold between N900 and N700 would be cheaper.
Chief of the corn market in Kawo, Kaduna is 85-year-old Alhaji Umar Bawa said he has spent over 18 years as head of the unit. He said all the products of corn, pop-corn was the most popular. He said while zea mays was used for waina, brabisco, biski and tuwon masara in northern Nigeria, many families in the country had equally explored the crop and discovered that the dry form of it could be mixed and grinded with less quantity of dry cassava to serve as close substitute to semovita.
For the millions of Nigerians who consume maize or corn or whichever, the following phrases may sound strange, but this is not something to worry about. The Encyclopaedia disclosed that the cereal- maize- with its scientific name as zea mays originated from Wikipedia in North America where it was first known as ordinary grass.
The source added that the cereal is called maize in the United States, Canada and Australia but generally known as corn in English speaking countries.
“It is a pre-historic domesticated grass. The Aztecs and Mayans cultivated it in numerous varieties in central and southern Mexico to cook or grind in a process called nixtamalization. Maize spread through much of agro-activities of the Americans. Between 1250 AD and 1700 AD, nearly the entire American continent had gained access to the crop. A significant population of the region later developed a great trade network based on surplus and varieties of maize. After European contact with the Americans in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, explorers and traders carried maize back to Europe and introduced it to other countries through trade. Its ability to grow in distinct climates and its uses were so much valued that it spread faster to the rest of the world.”
Owing to its economic and domestic values, corn is planted in all parts of Nigeria particularly during the rainy season. Noted for its economic value today, Nigerian women see the season of corn as a time for supplementing their sources of income.
The plant thrives well on loamy and humus soils and requires annual rainfall of 12 inches.
Cultivation of corn begins by making ridges. In the traditional way of planting corn, the farmer uses his cutlass to make holes along each ridge and drops equal number of corn-seeds into each hole. In less than a week, the shoot system of the monocotyledonous plant appears gradually on the soil surface. The farmer inspects his crops from the onset to se whether more than the required numbers of seeds are germinating from holes. Where this happens, thinning -removal of extra ones from a standing bunch- is applied for uniformity and to make the crops germinate perfectly.