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Published: January 26th 2010
On Thursday, 21 January, 2010, I visited the cafetal, or coffee farm, of Don Hugo Huete. His finca (farm) is located in El Rodeo, which is just a short drive up the mountain, but a long walk.
Karen, the daughter of Don Hugo, Lenin and I decided to hike up to Rodeo. We set off at the hottest part of the summer day at noon with a backpack full of water, a sandwich, an avocado, several tortillas, and a few bananas for each of us. The house puppy, Huesita, followed us for the adventure.
We hiked up and up through dusty ravines, seeking out shade and taking breaks every so often to drink plenty of water and wipe the streaming, dusty rivulets off our faces.
After nearly an hour we merged with the road and continued on up. We stopped for a few minutes at one of the rudimentary houses to sit in the shade and cool off, and then we set out for the forest of coffee.
Coffee is grown on what are considered small trees. All coffee farms have small coffee nurseries to continue replanting the farm with new trees. Once the plant leaves
the nursery and is planted in the ground, it needs three years to start producing berries.
Depending on factors such as elevation and rainfall, some coffee farms can harvest from November until the end of February. Don Hugo’s small farm on Rodeo primarily only picks in December and January.
Organic Shade Grown Coffee
Hugo is a member of the coffee cooperative PRODECOOP, which is based in Yalacaguina, Madriz. As a member of this coffee co-op, his coffee is certified organic and shade grown. He has worked hard to reforest his farm so there is plenty of shade for the coffee.
Having arrived late in the afternoon, most of the coffee pickers were finishing up for the morning. They hiked up or caught a ride with Hugo around 5:00am this and have been picking all day. They were busy hauling their sacks of coffee back to be counted.
For each bucket picked, Don Hugo pays 20 cordobas, or about $1.00. This is the price at most all coffee farms, though the bucket might vary in size at each farm.
After the coffee is picked and hauled and counted, they have to sort the berries. Only
red berries are fully ripe, so all green and unripe berries have to be sorted out. I sat and talked with neighbors of mine who had been picking. Don Sabino is the father of the two boys, Eliseo and Ezequiel, both of whom attend Moropoto’s school and are very good students. The three of them had been picking all morning and picked six and a half buckets, so 130 cordobas or $6.50.
After the berries were sorted, they called it a day and stored the coffee for the next day, when they will run the berries through what is called a wet mill, which will separate the berry husk from the beans inside. The beans sit in their own juice, or honey, as it is called, and ferment. Once the coffee beans have fermented, they are washed free of the honey and laid out to dry.
Once dried, they are packed into 100 pound sacks and driven to the co-op, where Hugo sells his coffee.
After the coffee photos, there are photos of the newly painted Moropoto church (site of the future torrez baade boda), of my Sandanista family, of the adobe latrine at the house,
and of the barbed wire that now gives us electricity. Enjoy!
Also! Mail shoutouts! 3 US Flag packages from mom, and two postcards from aabeyta of Las Vegas!!! I LOVE MAIL!
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