The older coffee plants that will get cut back next year are producing a healthy harvest this year, but they will need to rest. Our finca/farm workers Ricardo and Rigo, trimmed back trees, cleaned up the fields without disturbing the soil and added fertilizer to the plants as well as their local special organic fertilizer spray for the leaves from don Roberto’s farm. That is why the plants produced great results this year. It is a great improvement over last year’s harvest, but there are less coffee plants producing this year. Next year, we have to cut back the rest of the coffee plantation that did not get cut back this year. It will be a few years before we can cycle our coffee plants to the Kona method of; 1 mature row of coffee plants producing the most cherries, 1 semi-mature row of coffee plants producing a moderate amount of cherries, and 1 cut all the way back coffee row resting from producing the fruit and regrowing again. We figure we have approximately 14,000 to 16,000 plants.
Our plan is to pick the coffee cherries from two-thirds of the coffee plants and leave one-third to rest each year from producing coffee. But this will have to wait until we really have our fields in shape. So next year, the rest of the field that didn’t get cut back last year, will get cut back this year. That’s at least half the field! Oh well, these coffee plants need to be cut back, they haven’t rested for several years. By cutting back to the stump and using the Kona method the coffee plants get the chance to rest from bearing fruit and are cut back to the stump every third year.
In this photo a Panamanian Indian is picking the mature coffee cherries in our coffee fields in Costa Rica. The Indians cross over the Talamanca mountain range and work during the harvest season in Costa Rica. They get paid better wages in Costa Rica to hand pick the coffee cherries. Our Costa Rican farm manager Ricardo, hires the Indians and arranges for them to stay at our neighbors farm (Ricardo’s mother-in-law) and housing is made available to them while they are here for the coffee season. They have everything they need to sleep and cook in the house that is made available to them.
Ricardo says that this family that he chose to work with this year, are very good workers and he is very happy with them. He says they are also happy working on the farm. They will stay for the entire season, which is usually from September to the beginning of December. The harvest is picked in phases. Since our beans are very good quality this year, we do not have far to transport them. Ricardo is taking the cherries in smaller quantities to the nearby coffee production plant.
Ricardo says that he will offer this Indian family (there are five in total that are working on the farm) to work again for us next year. I look forward to meeting the Indian family next year and bringing them some donations from us, such as clothing and other supplies. I regret that I cannot be on the farm this year for the harvest! I’ll have to settle for the photos Ricardo is sending us to keep us updated on the farm activities.
Rigo, our other worker pictured here with his hands in the coffee, is measuring the coffee beans by using the little box. The Indians get paid by each container of cherries and Rigo is calculating the fanegras here in this photo so that the Indians are paid for their work. Rigo and Ricardo (both Costa Ricans), are incredibly good guys and I know for certain they are working and treating their hired help fairly and with kindness. Everyone’s counting on the coffee harvest. The little boy in the family is keeping close watch to what is going on here!
There’s our new cart we had made and the used Jeep we bought a few months back! In this photo they are loading up the cart and getting ready to take these small but frequent harvests to the coffee production plant nearby.
We plan to begin work on obtaining an organic label for our shade grown and fair trade coffee. It will take time, but at least this year the coffee harvest is ours (we let the former owner have it last year, and he did not take good care of the farm or the coffee plants) and already this year since Ricardo and Rigo have been taking care of the coffee fields we have been inspected as high quality cherries!
We know that the farmers around us such as don Roberto, doña Betty and on Rigo’s little coffee plantation, that everyone is 100% organic. We hope to convince the other farmers in the area to go organic, if they are not already doing so. We want to obtain a label for our coffee and include as many farmers from our community in Biolley (pronounced Bee-oh-lay) as well as the surrounding areas to co-op with us on the coffee production. The association of a woman’s group here has purchased our coffee this year. ( Hopefully, we can all work together for the common good of the community and make sure that some of the proceeds go to our beautiful national park right next to us! Amistad National Park is a world heritage site.
Coffee bags at the end of each coffee row. The plants are in much better shape than last year. These will be the plants however that will get trimmed back to the stump next year.
Our little pueblo of Biolley needs a clinic, pharmacy and better access to the main roads. The school needs donations to keep it running and with better facilities. The parents here are poor coffee farmers and livestock farmers, but they are incredibly cooperative when it comes to saving money and donating what little they can to the school. This has really impressed me. I spoke to one of the teachers and directors of the school ( I think there are only two teachers there, actually) and she was very impressive! She is dedicated to her little school and the students in it! I can’t wait to visit her and the school again in February when we finally get to go home to the farm for a little while!
We had the duplex built earlier this year so that Ricardo and his family could live on the right side (facing the house where the curtains are). The other side is vacant for us when we come to visit and will be our temporary home when we reside on the farm to build our main house. It looks like Ricardo built a little “tenglado” for the cars. (Carport). We’ll have to build a better carport for him. I’m staying longer than my husband on our next trip in February, to plant gardens and taking care of other responsibilities on the farm. Plus, I’ll get a chance to meet with the women’s group and find out more about our community and the largest national park in Costa Rica!
The girls (Laverne and Shirley) are fine and are now both very pregnant! They should be having kids very soon!
The girls love all the rocks on our property to climb around on! This is Shirley posing for us in this picture. We plan to incorporate these big boulders to be part of our home. Hopefully we can keep the rocks where they are and build around them. We want the rocks to be inside the house as well as outside the house. Coffee plants are in the background in this photo. Laverne and Shirley live at the end of the coffee fields and near where our house will be out on the pasture.
I’ll be back soon with more information on bamboo for the property and other plants I’ll be considering for the gardens around the farm. The green is greentastic, but we need some more color added to it! Until then….. hasta pronto and as always……………..
Pura Vida!
