One of the crops at the farm we are staying at is arabica coffee.
While we stay here we are drinking the organic coffee from last year's
harvest. It is very good. Last week the trees bloomed. It only lasted
three days, but it was stunning. Tiny, beautiful flowers lined every
branch. The whole valley was filled with the fragrance of coffee
blossoms: a floral mix of gardenia and jasmine. Thousands of bees
descended on the trees until the whole area hummed with their song.
Olive tells us that the coffee berries will not be ready for harvest
until December. It will be Enca farm's second harvest of coffee beans.
David and I hope that before we leave here we will have the chance to
help roast some of the coffee beans. They roast the beans by hand in a
giant wok over the fire. It takes around an hour. We think it would be
a great project for a rainy afternoon.
Beautiful! You've really captured what it must be like to be there, thank you. The only complaint I have is that I would have appreciated if you took artistic liberty to say that the whole valley smelled like freshly brewed coffee! =) Just kiddinng! Lots of Love,
ReplyDeleteCalvin
Wow, that's lovely. A treat for all your senses.
ReplyDeleteI am so jealous! I have read and read and read about coffee from my years at starbucks, but you have really experienced it! My question though - did it rain shortly before the trees went into bloom? I read somewhere that there has to be a rainfall to trigger the trees to bloom and I wondered if it was true or not.
ReplyDeleteIt's true Crystal. It is approaching rainy season and we had a week of heavy rain almost every afternoon/evening just before the trees bloomed.
ReplyDelete