Enset Harvesting and Processing

How is enset harvested and processed?

Although enset is usually harvested just before flowering, the preferred harvesting time is just when the plant flowers. The time duration required to flower depends upon climatic conditions, clone type, and management. Hence, the flowering time varies from 3 to 15 years but is optimally around 6 or 7 years. Enset processing is carried out by women using traditional tools (see Plate 6 series), and the process is laborious, tiresome, and unhygienic. The processing is done totally by women in most ethnic groups; however, men occasionally assist women, as among the Gamo (Plate 6a).

At harvest, leaves and older leaf sheaths are first removed from the designated plants. The internal leaf sheaths (commonly up to two meters in length) are separated from the pseudostem down to the true stem, which is about a 20 centimeter section between corm and pseudostem (Plate 6c). Then the true stem is separated or stumped from the underground corm. The concave side of the leaf sheath is peeled and cut into pieces of about one meter length and split lengthwise in order to shorten the leafsheath to a workable size. Then the leafsheath is decorticated using a locally made bamboo scraper while the leafsheath is held on an incline (at 45 to 80 degrees from the ground) against a wooden plank (Plate 6d). In some groups, women may sit on the ground (often on enset leaves) and use one leg to hold the leafsheaths in place, while in other areas they bind the sheath to the board and stand to decorticate. The working area used for decortication is covered with enset leaves. There is variation in tools used (bamboo versus newly adopted metal scrapers).

There is also variation in the way that the corm is grated (Plate 6e). One practice is to uproot the corm and remove any soil from its surface. Then the corm is grated separately with a locally made wooden tool with a sharp serrated edge. Another method is to grate the corm from the inside out while still in situ in the ground.

After the completion of decorticating and grating, the leafsheath pulp is spread on fresh enset leaves covering the ground, after which the grated corm is spread on the processed pulp. In some ethnic groups (e.g., Hadiya and Sidama) a starter is added to aid in fermentation. This starter consists of already fermented kocho to which various spices and herbs are added. In other localities (e.g., Gurage), fermenting agents are prepared from the inner portion of the corm and then mixed with the decorticated pulp and grated corm after some weeks. Turning, mixing, rinsing, and chopping continue over a period of time until the mixture partially ferments, when it is then referred to as kocho (Plate 6h-6l). The total time period for this fermentation to occur ranges from 15 to 20 days. Then the fermented kocho is stored in pits that are lined with enset leaves (Plate 6g and 6h). Pits vary in terms of size and depth, with some requiring ladders. The kocho must be left in a storage pit for a minimum of a month, but it can be stored for many months and even for several years. Some women note that for long-term storage, the kocho should be removed, the pit lining changed, and then the kocho returned to the pit.

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