from the plant in your cup!

the evidence: me in the cargo bay

Last weekend my director, 4 other students and me, we went to a coffee farm and he showed us the different steps, how the coffee comes from the plant in our cup. I know, I lived over a week on a coffee farm, but the people were so busy there, they couldn´t show me anything. Unfortunately! So I was happy as Enrique told me, if I sit in the cargo bay of the car, I can go, too.



Enrique and the baby plants



The coffe farm we went is totally different to Loma Linda. A few families are living on that farm, but the owners are from Italy. The families are just workers, but not owners of any piece of land. In the period with a lot of work, the harvest time, come more and more workers or whole families from the city to harvest. They earn compared to their amount of picked coffee.



Enrique showed us first the baby coffee plants in the tree nursery. I think he said, after 15 years a coffee plant produce less and less fruits.

After that, we sat down for watching a volcanic eruption. And we also remembered the 2 last days with their three earthquakes. By the way, I felt my first earthquake in my life at five in the night and it was, I can´t discribe what I felt. It was crazy! The day we went to the coffeefarm, the sky was blue, the temperature enjoyable farm and we had a great few of the volcano. Guatemala has 33 volcanoes and it is just half of Germany (like the DDR).

look at the little one left

First, of course, picking coffee, but only the red fruits, the green ones are not mature. After this going to weight the coffee. Next step: remove the pulp around the coffeebean. You can actually eat this, but for example at Loma Linda, they use it as food for the worms. After removing the pulp the bean has to be in water for 48 hours. The reason is the smeary substance around the bean. right after this 48 hours the bean has to dry for 24 hours in the sun and another 24 hours in a dryer. The dryer is heated up by fire. According to that, a man has to be there all the time to control the temperature and the fire. So, you can see, coffee needs over two days from the plant to the roasting facility. Coffee farms normally don´t roast their own coffee, they sell the dry beans to roast facilities in the USA or Europe. But the Gautemalan coffee goes mainly to the USA.

the fruits (picture from Loma Linda)

weight



remove the pulp

 

waiting 48 hours



sun drying



drying mashine

Then we drove to a house were workers live in the main harvest time. What I saw, I don´t want to live there! But our director said, that this like a 4 stars house. First, it had a tight floor (not soil), second: walls, third: a roof, fourth: light (one tiny lamp). But he also told us, that families come with little children. When a little child is sick and cries all the night, nobody might sleep, but they have to work hard the next day.

Our last stop that day was the Pacific Ocean in Champerico. We ordered food and went to the beach. The sand is black and very hot. Erin underestimate this and went barfoot. Big mistake! So she runned, jumped on her towel to relax, and runned again. For me it was kind of funny! Sorry Erin.... The water was so warm, the waves high and the current strong. But I expected more nature, more trees or palm trees. But we were in the city, I think out of the city there is more untouched beach and more beautiful than Champerico!

beach in Champerico



me in the Ocean



she likes beef and chicken