Bearded yam: Cleophas Ishmael of Lehigh dug up what he almost thought was a walrus from his garden. Upon closer inspection, they were the yams he had planted but the new yams were entwined with the roots of a tree near where he planted the yam. Photo by Mel Toadvine

Cleophas Ishmael of 702 McKinley Ave., planted a Jamaican yam last year and when he went to dig it up just recently, he thought he had dug up a walrus.

“I planted it along the side of the yard under a mulberry street and the roots of the tree got all entangled up with the yams,” Ishmael, a financial consultant, laughed.

“I thought it looked like a piece of art but then it does look like a bearded walrus,” he laughed.

Ishmael said he has eaten a few of the yams, which he had to break off because of all the route intermingled with the tree roots.

“They’re very good yams. The fruit inside is white, just like some of the sweet potatoes grown in the U.S. with white inside,” he said.

Ishmael has a large garden on his big lot next to his house. The recent frost “burned” many of his trees and plants.

“But I’m going to be careful with them to see if they come back out and I think they will. Then I will remove the dead parts,” he said.

That’s generally the advice of master gardeners in the area who say you should leave the burned plants alone until spring, and you should keep them watered.

However, Lehigh Fire Chief Don Adams doesn’t necessarily agree.

“If there are big plants up near the house with a lot of dead leaves or palms fronds …. they can catch on fire and we are in the dry season. I tell people to remove the dead dry parts of plans within 30 feet of the house. An ember can set those dry foliage plants on fire if there is a brush fire and the wind is blowing,” he said.

But Ishmael says he is keep a look at the plants that did burn and will do what it takes to keep any fires from them is a blaze should erupt near his home.

He has several tall banana plants and said he believes new plants will grow soon and then you can cut the banana plants. But he said if you look closely at the stem, the banana plant may not be dead.

“You will see some green and that means it will put out shoots,” he said.

The sculptured yam does look a little bit like a fat walrus and reminds one of the famous song by the Beatles.

According to an Internet site, “I Am the Walrus” is a 1967 song by The Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon/McCartney. Lennon claimed he wrote the first two lines on separate acid trips. The song was in The Beatles’ 1967 television film and album Magical Mystery Tour, and was the B-side to the #1 hit “Hello, Goodbye.”

Lennon composed the avant-garde song by combining three songs he had been working on. When he learned that a teacher at his old primary school was having his students analyse Beatles’ lyrics, he added a verse of nonsense words.

The walrus is a reference to the walrus in Lewis Carroll’s “The Walrus and the Carpenter” (from the book Through the Looking-Glass). Lennon expressed dismay upon belatedly realizing that the walrus was a villain in the poem.