Author: longmilescoffee

Evariste: Burundian Coffee Farmer

Have you ever tasted coffee?

“Today was the first time.”

What did you think?

“It is very bitter- but I’m glad you see the value in it!”

-Evariste

During harvest, Evariste walks his coffee cherries 5 kilometers from his home on Musumba hill to our washing station. It’s a long uphill walk to the station. We always huff and puff walking from Musumba to Bukeye- and that’s without 50 pounds of coffee cherries on our backs or our heads!

Until recently, farmers from Musumba hill had to walk across a single felled tree, high above the river, to get to our washing station. This year we were able to replace their single “lane” bridge and partner with the community to build a safe footpath bridge. One day, we’d love to see Musumba with a working bridge for all types of vehicles- but if we’ve learned anything in the last five years it’s that a small start is still a great start.

Evariste has five children and his mantra for them is, “Work hard and learn how to sustain yourself so that you’ll know what to do when I’m not alive.” Like many farmers in Burundi, and maybe like all of us humans, sustainability is at the heart of Evariste’s life.

Follow our #fridayfarmers hashtag on Instagram to see more!

May 27, 2016
Ninasi: Burundian Coffee Farmer

“I tell my children to work hard because it is how we will fight the poverty. My children bring me the most happiness- I have seven of them and they are all farmers too.”

Ninasi’s role model is the person who taught him how to farm. In Burundi, subsistence farming is how most of the population survives. Ninasi has 305 coffee trees and he’s been farming coffee for 15 years. You can taste Ninasi’s coffee in our Musumba hill offerings (Online in the USA at Duluth or Coffee Hound).

Follow our #fridayfarmers hashtag on Instagram to see more!

May 13, 2016
Dorothy: Burundian Coffee Farmer

Growing Coffee is like raising a child.

You have to wash them, nurture them, and look after them.

We spent part of a Saturday at Dorothy’s house on Gaharo hill. The minute she saw our baby Ari she scooped her up and led our whole family into her home. The dirt floors were cleanly swept and covered in the family’s grass sleeping mats. As her guests, we sat on low wooden stools and she sat on the floor. The only things adorning the cool dirt walls were a picture of Jesus, a plastic rosary, and a small piece of mirror glass. A crowd grew by her open door, entertained as baby Ari grabbed fistfuls of hair belonging to Dorothy’s youngest. We asked her some questions about life and here’s what she said.

Who is your role model in life?

My mom gave me to my grandmother to be raised because she had little means to raise me by herself. My grandmother became the person who taught me about life and the way to live. She taught me everything I know.

What has your biggest challenge in life been?

My biggest challenge in life has been linked to my children. Even after having my first child, I continued to experience pregnancy complications. My third child nearly died. The doctor didn’t think that she would survive the labor, but God intervened and I was able to give birth to a healthy girl.

What will you tell your grandchildren one day about life?

I will teach them about farming. What is most important though is to lead by example. If I pick up a hoe, they’ll follow and also pick up a hoe.

Have you ever tasted your coffee? What did you think?

Yes, when you made it for us. It’s good but it needs sugar.

What is the most difficult part about growing coffee?

It’s not difficult but it takes hard work and diligence. Growing Coffee is like raising a child. You have to wash them, nurture them, and look after them.

Dorothy is 37 and has six children, the youngest pictured with her here. Her family has 54 coffee trees and during harvest she walks the cherries to our Bukeye washing station, just 15 minutes away by foot.

May 6, 2016
Back To Burundi

Two of Anicet’s seven daughters on Mvumvu hill… one of the furthest and most rural hills we collect coffee from.

Our Burundi coffee reminds me of lilacs and saddles. Clearly, that’s not an educated flavor or taste profile. I’ve spent the last 16 years of my life in Africa, but these reminders are a nod to my Midwest American roots. I grew up craving everything that had to do with horses. My parents couldn’t afford to buy me a horse but that didn’t stop me from curling up for hours, knees thrown over an arm of our button backed blue velvet living room chairs, reading horse literature. Eventually, we met some lovely horse people and I traded chores for riding time most of my growing up years and even into my 20’s. To me a well-used saddle means warmth, connection, early mornings, pursuits of the heart and solitude- nearly all of my favorite things.

Our baby Ari being carried by Dorothea, a farmer from Gaharo hill and our friend.

Just as I poured over horse literature, my mother poured over flower catalogs. In the middle of February there would be sketches of her summer garden ideas and half completed order slips lying around our house in Minnesota. Complex number and letter combinations written in skinny blanks with blue pen… these always gave me hope. Summer would eventually come, even if it was impossible to believe when standing at six am in the dark at the school bus stop (penguin dancing in an ugly coat to stay warm).

Hope is found in connection. When we connect with others on the journey, it doesn’t seem so scary.

I guess the truth is- to me our coffee tastes like hope and comfort. The hope that summer will eventually come, no matter what February feels like. The comfort that we are pouring ourselves into something that’s worth it, no matter what happens in Burundi. We returned to Burundi as a family in early January. December 11th was a dark day in Burundi. We hadn’t returned yet, choosing to finish out the year in South Africa before coming home, but after December 11th we were reconsidering everything. Friends had bullet holes in their houses. Safety felt too far seperated from everyday reality. From within my ball of fear I found a familiar voice in my head. My friend Janette goes around spouting the line, “There is hope!” like a broken record. Tell her any sad story and she’ll say, “That’s sad but THERE IS HOPE!” Tell her about your worstest darkest awfulest day and, “THERE IS HOPE!” As annoying as this can be, she’s right. There is. There just has to be hope, and it’s there for the choosing. So, on the back of one of Burundi’s darkest days, we began packing. I don’t call this choice bravery or stupidity (it’s been called both)- I just call it ours. Our choice to be home. Our choice to sink our roots into the soil of Burundi, come what may. Our choice to believe that the One who created the stars has not and will not leave this place or its people.

Harvest, our fourth one, has arrived. Harvest always brings drama with it- the generator breaks, drying tables wash away in a flash flood, the truck bringing in the cooperatives time-sensitive coffee cherries breaks down, there’s a coup d’état. After four years we feel ready for whatever may come (we have an incredible team) and Ben would add “we’re more committed to quality than ever before” but to me that sounds sales pitchy. It’s true, but it’s pitchy. I’d rather you just taste it in the cup- and try to taste the hope and the comfort while you’re at it. Whatever uncertainty you live in. Whatever challenges you are being asked to rise from. Whatever ugly is in this world. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE HOPE and it will find a way to rise.

-Kristy

April 14, 2016
Uprooted: Our Burundi Exit

Our exit from Burundi was like molasses falling steady from a spoon, sticky and slow. Lifting ourselves from the land was a process full of attempts to stay. After several years of struggling to call Burundi “home,” now I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving the place that had taught me so many of my best life lessons. Oh, the irony.

The day of Burundi’s coup d’état my kids were at school. I had heard heavy gunfire all morning but after weeks of violent protests, that was nothing new. We had been sending them off to school with the sound of tear gas bombs as their soundtrack. This day was somehow different; suddenly I felt my gut turn and I just knew- the time to get to school was NOW. The women in my family pride themselves on these moments, moments when an “other sense” kicks in with extreme clarity. I think it can also be called common sense but on this day, whatever it was, it served me well.

As we drove home from school, a street to our right was full of protestors heading for a police line. They were chanting and shouting, unleashing themselves in the energy of potential change as police in riot gear steadied themselves for conflict. When we reached the bridge to our neighborhood the police assured me that we could not pass, I assured them that we had to. Panicked motherhood won. What followed was a citywide celebration like nothing I’ve ever witnessed. For the next four hours the city roared with cheers as Major General Godefroid Niyombare rode through town on a tank announcing the end of the current presidency. The following morning there were no cheers, not a sound, besides the heavy artillery of tank fire. Our kids jumped on their trampoline as RPGs sounded off in the background. Eventually, the coup failed.

“Too many things are occurring for even a big heart to hold.”
— W.B. Yeats

Clarity had arrived. We wouldn’t be able to make life in Burundi work for awhile as a family. School could not possibly try to re-open after the coup, and even if they did I knew I wouldn’t be sending my kids. Most of the families at the school had already left and the ten-minute drive to school now felt like a country away, too much could happen between the “here” and the “there” for us to justify school. It was becoming evident after weeks of protests and living day to day, we all craved some stability and routine. We left the city to visit our friends at a mission hospital in the country. We attempted to work and live there for a few days, but it was clear that we couldn’t stay there long term either- as much as we all wanted to.

With dragging feet, we made the decision to leave Burundi for a few months. With coffee harvest still going strong and an entire team of people devoting themselves to producing our amazing Burundi coffee, we felt broken by our own wise choice. Ben would go back to Burundi after the kids and I settled into our previous home city of Durban, South Africa.

We landed with a thud, and since that thud my kids have taught me what true resilience is. They have jumped into new schools and new routines in a new country without any complaints, which is more than their mother can say. So here we stay, rooted but not, until the dust settles in Burundi and our baby girl (did I forget to mention that?) arrives in August.

Lately we’ve gotten a lot of emails asking where to buy Long Miles Coffee, thank you for the support. This list is not exhaustive at all, and availability is always changing as our coffees are produced in small lots and only seasonally available. Happy hunting!

USA

Olympia Coffee Olympia WA

Herkimer Seattle WA

Dogwood Coffee Minneapolis MN

Fika Grand Marais, MN

Eiland Coffee Dallas, TX

AUSTRALIA

Cartel Roasters Melbourne

EUROPE

Wild Kaffee Germany/Austria

June 9, 2015
Unlikely Heroes Fighting The Potato Defect

The Antestia bug

From far off, the Burundian countryside is a vast expanse of green carpeted rolling hills. Each hill is a distinct geopolitical unit known as a ‘colline’ (‘hill’ in French). Get closer to a colline and a tapestry of patchwork farming appears: a square of banana trees, a patch of cassava, a large section of coffee trees bordered by some maize. Each colline holds a community of between 60 and 140 small holding farmer families. This year, there is something new happening on the hills. Moving between the canopy of coffee trees on each hill is a group of young Burundians, holding bright yellow spray bottles. They are the Long Miles Coffee Scouts.

Armed their unlikely weapons, the scouts wage a battle against the coffee farmer’s greatest and smallest enemy, the Antestia bug. This bug infects coffee cherries with bacteria by drilling a small hole into the skin of the coffee fruit. Once roasted and ground, the infected beans taste like a raw potato. One infected bean has the power to ruin an entire bag of coffee. The rate of infection is sporadic and difficult to trace, sometimes making it a risk for roasters to commit to buying coffee from Burundi. Our goal is to eliminate any trace of the potato defect in our coffees, and we’ve realized we can not do this without the diligence of our scouting team.

A coffee cherry damaged by the Antestia bug

The Coffee Scouts get their name from their training to find the pesky potato bug by scouting coffee trees. Using an inexpensive and organic pesticide (Pyrethrum) they target spray the Antestia which falls to ground moments later. The Coffee Scouts then collect the paralysed Antestia bugs for research. What makes our scouts extra special is that they were all unemployed youth who now have basic agronomy and data recording skills with the potential to study further and increase their local agricultural knowledge. Our team of Coffee Scouts, under the passionate and creative guidance of our agronomist Epaphrus (who we’ve nicknamed “Epa”), now numbers 14.

Epa teaching a farmer about good cherry selection

Our scouts each have 30 “farmer friends” who they visit on a weekly basis. They are committed to helping their 30 farmers understand and use better farming practices- from Antestia capture to mulching, pruning and fertilizing. A few weeks ago, Epa created an Antestia capturing compitition for all the farmers who deliver to the Long Miles station. The reward was 5,000 FBU (about $3.00) for every 100 Antestia bugs captured. The amount of bugs captured was a staggering 14,950 Antestia bugs.

Fabrice, a Coffee Scout, during the Antestia bug skit

With the creation of the Coffee Scout program, coffee farmers surrounding our stations are finally getting the support they’ve desperately needed for so many years. I am so proud of our Antestia fighters. Oh, and they even go around to every hill preforming a hilarious skit about Antestia that at one point affectionatly mocks our very own Mzungu (white guy) Ben. They are a team so worth all the pride we feel.

The great bug hunt continues!

Our Coffee Scouts are currently sponsored by District Roasters

March 26, 2015
Mothers. Wives. Farmers. Fighters.

Rain is falling gently on the banana leaves outside my window. School kids are shouting and laughing. Motorbikes are whizzing past piled high with boxes, goats, people, bananas, grass, and even entire beds on their backs. This is normal life here, and in Burundi “normal” can be very very hard for many. Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. I won’t give you any statistics on violence against women and children in Burundi (because they are staggering and you can google that if you really want to) but I will share with you one thought that I think is important.

“While the war (in Burundi) might have been the trigger for an increase in sexual violence, only when there is genuine peace and increased livelihood security – not just absence of armed conflict – will the level of sexual violence fall significantly.” -Nona Zicherman

Can coffee make a difference in the elimination of gender based violence? Absolutely it can. When everything seems desperate then nothing can feel certain. As security increases for our coffee farmers we have seen men and women stand up for themselves and their communities in small but valiant ways. Seeing change in small ways means big things to us. These images are the result of some of my favorite moments with women captured across the Burundi countryside. It’s my tiny tribute to them today. These women are farmers, business owners, community leaders, mothers, wives, students, hard workers and fighters… and they make Burundi the beautiful place that it is.

For the next 16 days you can join the UN in exposing gender based violence by painting your world orange. We ended up painting each other orange today.

November 25, 2014
Exploring Nairobi With Kids

Shopping in real grocery stores and speaking English rank at the top of my “reasons to love Kenya” list, but after a recent trip to Nairobi that list now includes all the fun things available for families to do in Nairobi (without even hiking out to the Maasai Mara). In just two days we were able to see most of the big five without leaving Nairobi.

Nairobi National Park is a game park in the city. Really? Yes, really. Nairobi National Park is a great option if you have kids who are too young or wouldn’t be up for a trip to somewhere like the Mara. It is also great if you have limited time but still want to see some wildlife. We spent 4 hours in the park and saw both lion and black rhino, add in a guide like Dickson (+254 712 861 532) who knows over 500 birds off the top of his head and you have a very memorable day on your hands.

David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage The passion of the Sheldrick family is inspiring and so is the sight of 20 orphaned baby elephants, who would have otherwise died in the wild, being bottle fed by extremely dedicated caretakers. Viewings, which involve touching a baby elephant if you are lucky, are only once a day at 11.

The Giraffe Center Not much can prepare you, or your kids, for long purple giraffe tongues lapping up treats out of your hand. It’s incredibly fun to see and pet and feed these Rothschild giraffes from a tall platform that places you right at slobbery giraffe tongue level. It’s great, and so is their conservation history and educational vision for the future.

Kazuri empowers people throughout he creation of beautiful things, from pottery to jewelry. Kazuri offers a free tour of their bead and ceramic making processes and I highly recommend taking it. It is incredible to see a vision started by one woman now employing hundreds of people with sales worldwide.

Of course, for us a trip to Nairobi isn’t complete without getting ice cream and heading to Nukumatt to stock up on things like oatmeal and icing sugar. Next time we are in Nairobi we hope to make it to Brown’s Cheese Farm and the National Museum of Kenya. Our stay at Amani Gardens Inn was really kid friendly. They have a great big garden for kids to play in, complete with a climbing wall. While not all of their rooms are created equal, if you manage to get room #14 you are in luck. The room has 2 sets of bunk beds, a baby cot, a queen sized bed as well as the feel of apartment living. They also have a newly built wing that is really beautiful.

The last few months have been challenging for the whole Long Miles team. Our family came away from Kenya empowered to push on. We saw first-hand the impact a few determined people can make. Kenya isn’t perfect… but within it are examples of forests being replanted, animals being rescued and jobs being created. That is really inspiring stuff.

If you know of other great places to explore in Nairobi, please leave us a note!

November 4, 2014
Burundi Coffee Farmer: Espéciose Manirakiza

War continues to pulse it’s reaching veins through lives and lands long after the guns stop ringing. For Espéciose, that means being the sole provider for her 6 children in one of the most poverty stricken nations on earth. Her husband was killed in the Burundian civil war that ended in 2006 and she has been farming coffee alone ever since. With just a meager 150 coffee trees, Espéciose farms multiple crops in order to feed her family.

It’s a 45 minute walk to the Long Miles Bukeye washing station from the small hand built brick home on Rugoma hill where Espéciose and her children live. She carries her ripe red coffee cherries in bags set atop the heads of herself and her children. She has never tasted the coffee she works so hard to grow, it’s far too precious to drink. “I work hard with one goal, staying healthy.” she says.

Espéciose’s story may sound a little bleak to you, but it is so much more than that. It is a story of resilience and survival. She has made a way for herself in a land where many would say survival is next to impossible. Espéciose is a community leader and a mother and a farmer, she is so much more than the labels of widow and poverty stricken, although she is those things too. Her challenges are evident, and so is her inspiration and resilience.

As our reach expands at Long Miles, we are searching for creative ways to improve the lives of widows, Espéciose included. We have some great plans under construction, but if you have… Ideas? Resources? Feel free to email us.

October 9, 2014

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