Fermenting a Windfall

I KETUT Wiadnyana looks forward to the month of June. That is when the cocoa farmer from Jembrana Regency, Bali, can begin harvesting 40-50 kilograms of raw cocoa from trees spread out over his one-hectare farm. The harvest has quadrupled over the last five years. "In the past, at the most I only got 15 kilograms at the start of the harvest," Ketut told Tempo English two weeks ago.

The 43-year-old man does not immediately sell the beans. First, he puts them in a container to ferment for six days. Doing so creates a strong flavor and aroma. One box is able to hold 60 kilograms of cocoa at a time. As such, Ketut usually pools his cocoa pods with others' from the same subak abian, a group of farmers linked by customary ownership of the land.