Langano Mamo, 40 year-old mother of five from Southern Ethiopia demonstrates the rather complicated traditional method of preparing the enset. First she identified a young enset plant two years old and uprooted it. She chopped of the leaves and spread them on the ground then extracted the pseudostems. Next she washed her feet and sat down on a small stool, placed a wooden plank across a stone and placed a stem on it. Then using a large knife she extracted the pulp from the succulent palp and the fibre.
The extracts she explained will be separated into two food products. The fine flour-like extract from the water in the stem is the first class product. It will be fermented for five days and used to make Bulla. The other denser substance which also has fibre will be buried in the ground and fermented for thirty days before being used to make other products such as ‘Omolcho’, a type of snack made for breakfast.
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- Selecting the enset to demonstrate how is processed.
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- Preparing the enset -the whole plant is useful.
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- The corm will be replanted to enset is available all year round.
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- A close up of the corm. Over 50 plantlets will grow and the farmers selects the strongest ones to replant.
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- Langano washes her feet
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- She uses a large knife to scrap of the pulp of the succulent pseudostems of the enset.
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- she squeezes the pulp to extract the water.
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- This is the ‘first grade’ product of the enset – the fine flour like sediment. It is fermented for five days and used to make ‘Bulla’ aporridge fed to women for forty days after delivery to help them regain their strength.
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- She lights a fire
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- She kneads enset she had previously fermented for thirty days. She squeezes out all the water then sieves it to get a fine dry flour.
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- The dry fermented flour is roasted over a fire
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- and here is the ‘Omolcho’ a light snack usually taken with tea for breakfast.
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