Cham

Cham is a starchy virid root used to make cham-meal (cham-cham) and cham-cake (kout-cham), staple foods in Munatan.

Cham trees (kamsjiva or kamchiva) are bushy virid plants found in temperate climates throughout Munatanplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigMunatan

Munatan [Moo-Nah-Tahn] is the southernmost region of Anásthias, south of the Dun Trisan mountains. The name possibly derives from a ancient Thalsic, meaning “Land of One Sun”, since the daystar is not visible in the southern hemisphere. Or it may be a reference to the Manthi people who were once the majority population of western Munatan. The term is an OrorrOrorrOrorrHartheraHartheraOrorrOrorrOrorrHartheraHarthera and southwestern Ororr. In the wild, cham trees grow slowly but expand their trunk each year until the middle section begins to hollow out, providing a habitat for nesting creatures. In time the ring-trunk grows to such a girth that it splits into numerous individual trunks, which spread out slowly, creating new trees. Viridplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigVirid

Referring to the Virid Kingdom of flora and fauna, toxic to human life. forests often have many groves of cham-trees arranged in a confusion of concentric circles.

Cham-tree roots spread far and deep under the soil, growing hundreds of thick, fibrous nodules which store water and energy for survival during the cool Munatani winters. These roots also enable them to regrow after fire or drought. Cham roots can grow very far from the trunk, this being their principle method of propagation.

Cham-trees are propagated for food in plantations, with hundreds of widely spaced stems grown in rows. The roots are harvested by digging up the soil and cutting out the roots of alternate rows of trees. Because mature cham-tree roots are always interconnected with their neighbours, the de-rooted trees survive and regrow new roots with the assistance of their neighbours. Traditional people harvest roots for their own use throughout the year, but in commercial plantations cham harvesting happens twice a year, or up to three or four times in good years.

Cham is susceptible to various virid infestations and plant diseases, particularly in green areas where cham may be the only virid plant. Farmers counteract this by planting virid hedgerows which provide a habitat for predators which feed on plant pests.

As a virid product, most of the cham plant is toxic to humans. Cham farmers and field hands are easily identifiable by purple-grey scars from lacerations by the sharp-edged cham leaves. Despite these hazards, the starchy root is high in carbohydrates, protein and dietary fibre.

To make it suitable for human consumption the roots are peeled then boiled with lime, to extract soluble toxins and neutralise others. They are then squeezed, using either press-stones or a screw press, to extract all the toxic liquid. The squeezed root is then finely ground, and given another rinse with cold water to extract the last of the juice. Finally the cham-meal is sifted, which both creates a uniform texture, and sifts out the hard black seeds which are indigestible, attract pests and can cause the meal to spoil.

Ground cham-meal is then left in the sun to dry, but in parts of Munatan the weather is not consistently dry for the meal to dry quickly. Consequently it is often quickly baked into round or square cakes, or a kind of thin crispbread. These dry products, when wrapped and stored correctly, can last for years without spoiling.

A staple of Munatani cuisine is 'hard cake' or kout-cham, bricks of cham meal which are twice baked to make them very hard and durable. When added to a soup or stock they rehydrate quickly to a soft, chewy consistency. Boukul oil is traditionally added to cham-based dishes, adding both a rich nutty flavour as well as many essential nutrients which cham naturally lacks.