Bamboo picking/digging

Three car loads set off further into the country side, four foreigners, four adult Chinese and four kids   headed for Nancy's home town to dig for bamboo. 

It was a very small village, her Uncle still lives there but her parents had moved to the bigger city about ten years ago. Nancy and her brother Fred, who also came used to have to walk to school taking two hours if they missed the one bus, very hilly area, a tunnel was put in about five years making it more accessible.

We walked for about half a km then up a single lane into the bamboo forest.

They told us that the bamboo would take one season to get very tall, then it came be used for fencing, ladders just about anything really.

The best shoots are the ones just before they break the ground although the ones that are up to a hand span are alright to eat.

These are too big.

Apparently its best (and easier) to dig away from the way it is growing. We (Nancy) filled two sugar bags full then we had afternoon tea of fruit before returning to school. 

The bamboo is sliced, boiled and then dried which can then be eaten as a snack or added to meals.

This bamboo was drying at the restaurant. We were given some of "our" hard labour a week later to eat, it was very tasty but we had to leave it as we were travelling back to Australia the next day and of course couldn't take it with us.