A Day in the Life of a Coffee Farmer Part 1

We live in a world where each type of product has an array of options, grocery store shelves are lined with endless choices with store brand and name brand milk, cereal, fruit, and vegetables. Recently, I purchased some Pete and Gerry’s brand eggs and I have to say I was impressed by both the product quality and carton branding., the story that Pete and Gerry’s tells is one of family farmers that care about the lives of their chickens and the quality of their eggs. Just on the inside of the carton, I learned about what its like to be a chicken farmer in this crazy industrialized food system, and let me tell you, knowing more about my eggs made me enjoy them even more!

It inspired me to share a little more about the day to day lives of the farmers who grow our coffee. Today the spotlight is on our og coffee partners, the Flores Alcerro family in the mountains of central Honduras. I had to dig up my old coffee journal from my co-founder Anour and I’s trip down to Honduras and after some searching, I found a nice little entry detailing our daily routines during the our time with our coffee friends. As you read this, please try your best to put yourselves in the shoes of Cesar, the family’s youngest son, who works very hard to make your cup of coffee come to life.

5:30 AM

The day has begun and the sun slowly peaks its head out from above the horizon. Cesar wakes up and goes to the kitchen to wash up. While there is running water down in the town, up on the mountain farm he uses a bucket and water from a reservoir beside the kitchen. Water is an extremely valuable resource in these farming communities and each drop must be conserved.

6:00 AM

With a to-go breakfast of “Baliadas” (a rolled corn tortilla packed with cheese and beans), he heads off to the farm’s coffee processing station about 20 meters from the house. Before him lie 20 large buckets of ripe coffee cherries that were harvested the day before. The processing of coffee is very complicated as we discussed in the previous blog post, each of the 3 layers must be removed prior to packaging for export. First, Cesar removes the red cherry husk using an antiquated metal mill, which only recently was hooked up to an electrical motor. Sometimes farmers save these husk to make cascara tea or they simply reincorporate them into the biological system as mulch or compost. Then, the coffee is washed in big tubs to remove the sticky mucilage layer, the beans must but stirred for several minutes to ensure proper washing. The water is then drained from the tubs and the coffee, which at this point only has one more layer to be removed, is laid out to dry in the sun. These steps require a lot of physical exertion and Cesar breaks an early sweat.

8 AM

Truck maintainence time. In small farm communities, it is important to take great care in preserving the current infrastructure rather than consistently buying new things that break. The Flores Alcerro family’s Toyota Tacoma is going on 25 years old but runs well thanks to constant diligence. Before the family was able to acquire this important piece of equipment, the 152 lb sacks of coffee were carried over 100 meters up and down hills from the processing station to the spot where local intermediaries (coyotes) picked up the beans. I consider myself a strong and healthy young man but I don’t think I could make it more than a few meters.

9 AM

The family takes a quick break for a snack. Suyapa, Cesar’s mom, has been up since the crack of dawn washing and preparing lunch. Antonino, his father, is singing a dulcet love song as he comes back from feeding the chickens.

9:30 AM

The coffee harvest begins. 12 workers from the nearby communities have been tending to the plants all morning; weeding, mulching, and watering, and Cesar’s appearence signals the start of the days harvest. Coffee harvesting is difficult, the coffee cherries are not easy to break loose from their stems and only the red cherries should make it into the harvest basket. Cesar fills his basket with ease.

1:30 AM

The family convenes for a lunch and siesta. The midday sun is shining down from high in the sky.

To be continued…

From left to right: Cesar, Antonino, Suyapa, Anour, Me, Cesar’s sister Yanely, and family friend/first mate Alejandro