Ethiopia Rocko Mountain Natural
Ethiopia Rocko Mountain Natural
NEW SEASON: Blueberry / Strawberry / Chocolate
ALTITUDE - 1950 - 2150 MASL // REGION - HARICHA WOREDA, GODEO ZONE // PROCESS - NATURAL // VARIETY - HEIRLOOM
Tariku Mengesha is the sole owner and produced this natural coffee entirely on his farms, the farm is located throughout the Banko Chelchele kebele (neighbourhood) of Gedeb woreda, south of Yirgacheffe and just west of the bulgy border with the vast Oromia region.
Tariku applied the basic agronomic practices and keep the field free of any weeds, grows pulse crops in his coffee field so as to maintain the fertility of the soil. He also does the pruning practices with technical help from Technoserve and district Agricultural experts.
He processes the coffee with the help of Tesfaye Roba, this lot has been processed as a traditional Natural process, first by soaking the cherries to remove all immature, floaters, overripe and foreign matters and then drying on raised beds for 28 days.
While coffee is Mengesha’s primary income, which he uses to support his family that includes 10 children (3 boys and 7 girls), he also grows navy beans and false banana, called “enset,” which produce no edible fruit but whose root and heart ( rhizome and pseudostem, if you want to be botanically accurate) can be harvested.
The average enset matures in four or five years, and the plant can provide around 80 lbs of starchy food, usually fermented underground for up to a year, after which the doughy substance can keep for up to a decade. While the fibres in the heart of the plant can be boiled, the most popular iteration is a fermented enset “bread” or “cheese,” called “kocho” – quite strong and foreign to the western palate, but a staple in Southern Ethiopia.