The earliest records of the Apiaca people suggest that they had large plots of cultivated fields, and grew a great array of crops. Crops harvested include sweet cassava (manioc), cara, yams, peanuts, sweet potatoes, maize, beans, lima beans, pumpkins, cotton, and as of 1848, watermelons. Planting and harvesting were typically communal activities, although typically performed by women. Although early sources do not make mention of any domestic animals, by the mid-19th century the Apiaca came to have pigs, dogs, chickens, ducks, and several other birds. They hunted peccaries, tapirs, and capybaras, and used baskets set at the bottom of weirs across the mouths of streams in order to catch fish.