Harvesting and Processing The Bitterleaf Leaves: A Clear Tutorial

Hello, dear friends of the @homesteading community. Today is another great day filled with several activities but we are always conquerors and by following our schedules properly, every day would always go perfectly well.

Today is a special day, we planned to cook a special soup, the bitterleaf soup, hehe. I hate this soup for one reason, the bitterness but I love it for just two reasons. Firstly, the nutrients it contains and secondly the condiments often used in cooking the soup. So I was in charge of processing the bitter leaf leaves.
Here are the steps from harvesting(cutting) the bitter leaf leaves to processing them into a usable product:

So I went outside with my bowl in which each of the leaves cut would be placed.

I then proceeded to cut the leaves, I used the hand-cutting method, knife cutting would take a longer time.

From a single leaf to bunches of leaves. I piled up the leaves in the bowl till I felt that was enough.

During the cutting process, I observed that most of the leaves were eaten by insects. So I avoided those that were bitten and went for the fresh ones.

I felt so bad when I finally cut the three broadest leaves just to find out the leaves were already bitten by the unknown insects.

But I still searched till I found another set of broad leaves though not as broad as the destroyed ones.

After this time, I noticed the bowl was filled to the brim, I had already squeezed some below, no more space for pressing and squeezing more leaves into the bowl. So I headed straight for the processing.

While returning, I saw an insect by the bowl. I thought it was the destroyer insect, but it wasn't, it was just a spider, which doesn't feed on foliage leaves.

I just shook it off.

Finally, when I arrived at the washing sink, I got another bowl, a plate and a sieve. Those were the processing equipment.

Then I proceeded to wash the leaves. The washing process was done manually. I shook my hands and moved my muscles today. My biceps and triceps are doing great.

So by constant scrubbing and friction rubbing, the leaves were crushed gradually from broad leaves to strands and pieces of leaves.

The scrubbing was also done manually, hehe. I would have used the blender if I only wanted the juice but using a blender to process the leaves for the soup would have meant the absence of the desired fiber in the soup.

As I proceeded, white fumes began to emerge. This is a sign of freshness. The leaves are still fresh and contain nutrients in good quantities.

Do you know what bitter leaf juice can do to your health? I will tell you next time, lol.

Having known the importance of juice obtained from processing bitter leaf leaves, I got my glass cup and drank some quantity of the juice.

I didn't care about the bitterness, I only cared about the health advantage.

After taking the whole juice in the cup, I proceeded to finish up the leaf processing. When I noticed the leaves were crushed and had attained the required size for making the bitter leaf soup, I proceeded to sieve the leaves from the juice.

I sieved the leaves from the juice and emptied it into a plate. I made sure I rinsed a large percentage of the bitterness in the leaves before putting them on the plate.

When I noticed I had sieved a large quantity of the leaves off the juice, I did a finishing work of ensuring I properly and thoroughly rinsed every of the equipment and returned to the right places.

I then covered the plate containing the processed leaves.

That was my part of the family cooking activities. The rest of the soup preparation is left for my aunty.

Thanks for reading, I hope you are anticipating my post on the great health importance of drinking bitter leaf juice. Through the practice of #homesteading( home agriculture and water supply activities), we have been having a simple and peaceful home, a home of happiness and self-sufficiency.
All the images are mine. Thanks once again for stopping by.