Ground provisions

Ground provisions is the term used in West Indian nations to describe a number of traditional root vegetable staples such as yams, sweet potatoes, dasheen root , eddos and cassava. They are often cooked and served as a side dish in local cuisine. Caribbean recipes will often simply call for ground provisions rather than specify specific vegetables. Cassava, sweet potatoes, and maize derived from the aboriginal agriculture of the Amerindians. Dasheen, also known as taro, blue food and kalo, arrived to the Caribbean aboard Trans-Atlantic slave ships. Provision grounds, small tracts of the least desired land, were allocated by planters to slaves so that they could grow their own food for their survival. The planters conceded to this arrangement to avoid absorbing the expense of feeding the slaves they imported to power their sugar plantations. In addition to large-scale farming, ground provisions are a part of forest gardens as an adaption of African compound farming.

Source: Wikipedia