4 ms·
(Enset, a.k.a. “false banana”) an underutilised food security crop
- cogman10 5y agoLooks like a banana, tastes like a potato. https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/enset-kocho-ethiopia https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/enset-kocho-ethiopia
- fouc 5y ago> It looks like a banana plant, harvests like a root vegetable, and tastes like flatbread. Though the enset is a technical cousin of the banana, this tree offers a food that is much more potato-like. English-speakers—feeling betrayed by the enset’s misleading appearance—decided to call it “the false banana.”
- addaon 5y agoBasic info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensete https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensete Interesting that the fruit is inedible; it's the roots and stalk that are used.
- blacksmith_tb 5y agoSeems like that's a disadvantage, since the plant would otherwise be perennial (if you didn't need to dig it all up to eat it). I guess if it also grows wild it may not take a lot of care.
- hinkley 5y agoI don't know how this plant works, but this is an 'it depends' situation in the general case. Some edible 'roots' on plants are more like tubers than roots, and in theory you can dig the plant up at dormancy, cherry-pick a couple of the most edible looking bits, and plop it back in the ground. With some wild-gathered edible bulbs, the act of digging up the central bulb ends up fragmenting offsets (and pushing them a bit away from the former center of mass). For those plants that have co-evolved with humans, like cammassia, it's claimed that over the long run you get more and healthier plants by this sort of selective harvesting. There are also plants that can grow from root divisions, including a few noteworthy pernicious weeds. Digging up 'the plant' invariably leaves some rather large side roots in the ground, several of which might become independent plants, again radiating out from the original central stalk. I have the vaguest of recollection that burdock has this quality, but don't quote me on that. Comfrey definitely does this but it's not really edible, root or stalk (it has some nasty oil soluble alkaloids that your liver will not appreciate).
- aitchnyu 5y agoThe related banana shrub propagates saplings at it roots. Home growers here in Kerala harvest one bunch, cut off that stem (and sometimes eat it) and wait for next sapling. I tried to Google if same is true for Emset but this is the only pic that suggests self propagation https://www.feedipedia.org/content/enset-ensete-ventricosum-field https://www.feedipedia.org/content/enset-ensete-ventricosum-...
- aaron695 5y ago
- pvaldes 5y agoUnderutilised for good reasons. Ensete has the potential to destroy the much more valuable banana crops.
- justhw 5y agoI bring back about 10 kilos of enset powder (kocho) every time I go to Ethiopia. It’s an incredibly healthy food.
- aitchnyu 5y agoWhat's the benefits gained by fermentation? Judging by South Indian fermented "breads", less calories, more probiotics, more vitamin b.