Harvest & Fermentation

Harvest

The harvested plants are gently knotted with a needle and thread, and hung on wooden sticks or gently tied around the leaf stalk with a string hanging from the ceiling of a barn.

The curing drying process of leaves over a period of four to six eight weeks must be under the control of the heat between 25-27 C°.

Temperature must be carefully monitored to prevent extremely rapid drying.

The barn must be well ventilated. In dry weather, a process called air curing.

Fermentation

After curing, the leaves are bunched in to five or more leaves.  then laid in piles called pilones, which generates heat, this process eliminating moisture and releasing ammonia. generally, once the temperature reaches 48 C°, the piles are disassembled, and the leaf bundles are shaken to remove excess moisture and to cool them.

depending on the sizes of the leaf and the temp, the pile is then reassembled and this process is repeated for up to 3-4 times.