Friday, November 4, 2011

The Coffee Harvest

I hope you all up north are enjoying your morning harvest - we here are working hard to pick it for you! So, the coffee cherries have just turned red - aka - ripe. So, they are being hand-picked and drying. Consequently, the air smells like a mix of baby poop and vomit - so I really hope you enjoy your morning cup of joe now! But the coffee plants are very pretty with their dark green shinny leaves and bright red cherries. They will be drying from now until next spring, and then they will process it and sell it to Starbucks (they say Starbucks is their best buyer - who knows if that's true). So, people in my community are going to pick coffee - they leave at 5 am and return at about 4 pm. The are paid about $1.25 per 25 pounds and people can make over $10 a day, so that's A LOT of coffee to pick. Now, people have much more money than about 6 months ago, and they will be getting more if they have sugar fields - the harvest is next to come!