Experiences · Farm & Community
A day on a teff farm
Plough with oxen, cut and thresh the teff that becomes injera, and share lunch with the family that grows it.
Most Ethiopians still farm, and teff — the grain behind injera — is the crop of the highlands. Spend a day with a farming family, working alongside them at whatever the season demands.
Teff is sown with the long rains around July and harvested from November to January. Fields are still ploughed with a pair of oxen and a wooden plough, the grain is cut by hand, and threshing is done the old way: oxen or donkeys walking in a circle over the harvest to separate the seed from the straw.
Depending on the time of year you might plough, weed, cut or help at the threshing floor — then carry the grain home, see it ground, and eat injera made from it at the family's table.
We arrange farm days with families we know in highland villages along our routes, from the Menz highlands to the countryside around Lalibela, and the day is always paid for directly to the household.
The work changes with the season; the harvest and threshing, November to January, are the most striking time to come.
The details
- Time needed
- A full day
- Where
- Highland villages
- When
- Harvest: Nov – Jan
What's included
- A day with a farming family, arranged in advance
- A local guide and translator
- Lunch with the family
- A payment made directly to the household
Where It Happens
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