Tag: Burundi coffee farms

  • 2020 HARVEST UPDATE

    2020 HARVEST UPDATE

    From the farm, field and lab.

    Over the coming weeks, we plan to share updates from the ground in Burundi; updates from the farm, field and lab.

    Burundian coffee farmer and her son
    Emilliene, a coffee farmer from Nkonge hill, with their son

    FROM THE FARM

    words from Emilliene, collected and translated by Joy Mavugo in conjunction with Robyn-Leigh van Laren from the Story Team.

    “This coffee harvest is going well -much better than last season but it has also been challenging. When you look at the coffee trees, there are so many cherries. But, there are a few things that I’m worried about. Firstly, there has been too much rain. It’s been destroying roads, houses, and so many other things in our community. Some of the coffee cherries are taking more time to ripen because of the rain. Since the start of harvest in April, I have only picked and delivered cherries to the washing station two times. The general elections are also coming up. I don’t like it when the elections happen in Burundi. In 1993, many of my family members, including my husband, were killed. When I think of the elections, all I can think of is the hard times we’ve had to go through since then.”

    Long Miles team cupping Burundian coffee
    Seth Nduwayo, Quality Control Manager and Joy Mavugo, Story Assistant

    FROM THE FIELD

    written by Seth Nduwayo, Quality Control Manager.

    “Today, I will talk about weather/climate. In fact, the climate in parts of Burundi where we are operating is unpredictable. We may be expecting a rainy period and this delays or vice versa. For example, at the end of August we had some rain and this caused the blossoming of coffee. Then, we thought that harvest will start as early as February instead of March. Still, we experienced some sunny days between January and February. However, February was very rainy- something we usually experience in April. As the cherries didn’t have enough sunlight, they ripened later and up until today, there are too many cherries in the plantations that are still green. This caused harvest to start later, on April 15th (a month later than expected). Most farmers affirm having a lot of cherries that will take long enough to ripen.”

    FROM THE LAB

    written by David Stallings, Roaster Relations.

    “Along with concrete plans the world over, the current global pandemic has forced us to reimagine our lab situation for the 2020 Harvest. Long Miles was incredibly lucky to have the lionhearted Jordan Verdouw managing our Bujumbura lab for the 2019 Harvest. Jordan did an absolutely top-notch job screening coffees, providing cupping feedback to all members of our team, and also setting up systems for success in future harvests. While we had every intention to bring Jordan back into the Bujumbura lab for the 2020 season, the universe has decided to keep Jordan in his native Australia for the foreseeable future. When we realized we could not bank on travel restrictions lifting during the harvest, we shifted and decided to move the entire lab to the States. As samples come off the drying beds they will be dispatched weekly. From the East Coast of the States they will be analyzed (physically and sensorially). The biggest boon from this scenario is that samples should be getting to our roasting partners earlier than ever this year, as they will all leave from the States.”

  • BURUNDIANS AND COFFEE

    BURUNDIANS AND COFFEE

    Burundi Coffee, Burundi, Long Miles Coffee Project, East Africa

    Like in any culture, there are no absolutes that apply to everyone. There are many Burundians who do drink coffee, but generally they are not the farmers who grow it. Whenever we ask coffee farmers if they’ve tasted their own coffee, the response is the same almost every time:

    “NO, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO.”

    Coffee trees grow almost everywhere in Burundi’s higher elevation ranges, but coffee beans are hard to find outside of niche markets in the capitol city. The coffee cherries are too valuable for most farmers to keep and dry for home consumption, so the coffee crop goes to a washing station where it can make cash on the kilogram. It’s a common daily ritual for farmers to drink a glass of fresh milk or a thermos of hot tea, but almost never coffee. This might be because when Burundi was a Belgian colony, Burundians were forced to grow at least 50 coffee trees but never had the opportunity to drink it. 

    Coffee arrived in Burundi with the Belgians in the 192o’s. Growing coffee wasn’t a choice for Burundians from 1933 until Belgian rule fell away in 1962. When it did, many farmers ripped out their coffee trees, choosing instead to plant subsistence crops like bananas or cassava. Those who kept their coffee trees did so with little enthusiasm for coffee itself, having seen very little compensation for their efforts under Belgian rule. War, political uprising, a monarchy, democracy, and global warming have followed in the decades since. It has only been since the early 2000’s that producing specialty coffee has become a focus in Burundi. With such a turbulent past, it’s no wonder that farmers have had little opportunity to taste their own coffee. We wanted to change that for a farming couple named Philippe and Sabine.

    Philippe and Sabine live on a piece of land tucked underneath Gitwe hill, a stone’s throw away from Heza. They grow just shy of 500 coffee trees in between a sea of tea plants and banana trees on a piece of land inherited from Philippe’s father- a coffee farmer before them. 

    Have you ever tasted your coffee?

    “Never.” 

    What do you think it tastes like?

    “It must be nice, otherwise you wouldn’t ask us to keep growing it.”

    How do you feel about learning how to make coffee today?

    “Excited. When we have cherries again, we’ll be able to make it ourselves at home.”

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    Burundi coffee, Burundi, Long Miles Coffee Project, East Africa

    Burundi Coffee, Burundi, Long Miles Coffee Project, East Africa

    How does it taste?

    “It needs sugar.”

    (after adding milk and sugar)

    It’s so good! It’s delicious.

    It was hard work brewing coffee with Philippe and Sabine in the hills where it’s grown. There are coffee farmers the world over who spend their days caring for this precious crop they might never get the chance to taste. It makes one realise that it’s a privilege to be able to buy, brew and drink coffee so easily in other parts of the world every day.

  • Too Much Rain

    Too Much Rain

    Burundi coffee, Specialty coffee, Long Miles Coffee Project, Burundi

    “RUGURU (upcountry ) IS BAD. TOO MUCH RAIN.”

    It comes in a message from Anicet, one of our coffee scouts at the end of last year.

    The heavy rains have caused soil to spill down the steep slope our Heza washing station is built on, stopping just short of the cherry reception tanks. Part of the road leading to Heza has crumbled away, making it impossible for anything or anyone to pass. We have to make our way on back roads to reach Heza now, adding an extra hour onto our already two-and-a-half-hour journey.

    The rain started coming down in October and the ground hasn’t been dry since. It’s not unusual to have rain this time of year, but it is unusual to have so much. The reality is, Burundi doesn’t have the kind of infrastructure to handle all this rain. There are no real gutters here. No retaining walls or storm drains. Entire roads wash away, becoming one big deadly beast that makes its way through neighborhoods. This devastation spills over into farmers’ fields, uprooting crops. It breaks down homes, church buildings, erodes roads and sometimes claims lives.

    “YOU CAN’T GO 500M WITHOUT SEEING THE DAMAGE FROM THE RAIN. IT’S TOUCHING EVERYTHING, NOT JUST THE COFFEE.” – Merchicedeck, coffee farmer on Gikungere hill

    We’ve heard heartbreaking stories of friends waking up in the middle of the night, their belongings floating all around them. Families have spent days sweeping and scooping rainwater out of their homes by the bucketful. Raging knee-deep rivers have cut off entire neighbourhoods from one another.

    Burundi Coffee, Specialty Coffee, Long Miles Coffee Project, Burundi

    Last week we took to the coffee hills to see how our farming community was feeling about all the rain. On the way up, the one national road was blocked by piles of mud that had spilled down from the surrounding mountains, making it impossible for cars to pass. Trucks that usually haul goods and fuel across Bujumbura (Burundi’s economic capital) were stopped dead in their tracks. Lines of cars snaked both up and down the road, waiting for the mud to be cleared by hand. We counted two broken pipelines spilling precious water across the road with no one to fix them in sight.

    “THE BEGINNING OF COFFEE HARVEST IS SUPPOSED TO BE A HAPPY TIME FOR US, BUT THE RAIN IS BECOMING OUR ENEMY.” – Pascal, coffee farmer from Munyinya hill

    Burundi coffee, Specialty coffee, Long Miles Coffee Project, Burundi

    This is not just a challenge for Burundi. It’s a hard truth to swallow for South Sudan, Central African Republic, Uganda, DR Congo, Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania.

    “MY FAMILY’S LIFE STANDS ON COFFEE. WE WERE EXPECTING A LOT OF IT THIS YEAR, BUT DAY BY DAY I WATCH IT DISAPPEAR. THE RIPENING COFFEE CHERRIES AND LEAVES KEEP FALLING OFF THE TREES BECAUSE OF THE HEAVY RAIN.” – Abel, coffee farmer from Munyinya hill

    Almost as quickly as the heavy rains came down, they slipped away again. We celebrate the dry days, our ears still prickling at the sound of rumbling thunder and dreading the pitter-patter of fresh rain.

  • Spes: Burundian Coffee Farmer

    Spes: Burundian Coffee Farmer

    Burundi, coffee farmer000094320012 000094320013

    Life’s best moments often seem to be tucked deep inside the ordinary ho-hum minutes of our days. On Tuesday, the boys and I gave our turtle Popcorn a bath. His name alone makes me smile- one day Ben went out looking for some popcorn (which he couldn’t find anywhere in town) and came back with a turtle. Popcorn’s bath was a simple thing- but to see that turtle’s joy at the vast amount of water before him kind of made my week. That’s strange, I know, but lately I’m realizing it’s all about the little things. Laughing with a friend in the gym, watching an epic rainy season storm roll in, taking a long walk on one of our coffee producing hills, giving myself permission to listen to Christmas music in October… and greeting farmers like Spes.

    Spes is one of the first woman coffee farmers I connected with back in 2013 and I love seeing her every coffee season. Greeting her, finding out about how her five children are, talking to her about the future- there is something familial and joyous about seeing the same farmers harvest after harvest. Spes has a small number of trees, only 500, and she’s one of the farmers whose land we have been rejuvinating with new coffee trees.

    With new trees comes great responsibility- farmers have to agree to being trained in mulching, fertilizing and pruning practices in order to recieve trees from our nursery. Before the nursery project began our farmers were averageing just 400 grams of coffee cherries per tree and now the average in the hills around our station is 1 kilogram. It’s training alone that has made that difference. We hope, one day, that our farmers will be gleaning 3 kilograms per tree. One day.

    Ok, we do get pretty geeky about the coffee trees around here- but seeing transformation is really what this is all about for us.

    Follow our #fridayfarmers hashtag on Instagram to see more!

  • Land for Burundi Coffee

    Following @kristyjcarlson on Twitter and Instagram gets me excited about being part of this family of four that has their hearts set on helping a community in rural Burundi produce amazing coffee. I’m so happy to be a part of it.

    Building a coffee washing station in Burundi has meant taking on an obscenely huge amount of challenges and obstacles on the way to realizing the dream.  Let’s just say accomplishing something like this in Burundi has few more challenges in it than building that lemonade stand in Wisconsin when I was six.

    For months now we have set our sites on building this coffee washing station.  Finding the perfect location was key to making it a success.  After 3 years of sourcing and cupping Burundi coffee, I knew where we needed to be.  The place we were looking for was sitting in the middle of a triangle of the best coffee washing stations producing the best coffee in all of Burundi.  Besides the best coffee, it was a place where farmers are too far to carry their coffee to the nearest station forcing them to sell to local buyers at ridiculously low prices.  It has one river, bringing plenty of fresh clean water to run the de-pulper.  Sitting at the perfect altitude with a micro-climate that is unique and ideal for producing the kind of coffee that makes you (ok, maybe just me) go weak in the knees.

    Three years to make certain of this specific spot.  Months to get all the paperwork done and meet all the farmers to explain the vision.  Weeks to get all the signatures of the owners of the land willing to sell and the neighboring farmers as witnesses. Then, on the last day before signing, we find out that two of the five farmers don’t feel like selling anymore.

    What do we do?  Tomorrow we go back to the land to talk to the farmers.  The area co-op president and commune elder have talked through our vision and are coming with us to make sure that the farmers know the kind of impact this station will have on the lives of all 2,500 families in the four surrounding hills.  If they still decide they don’t want to sell are we back to square one?  No, the commune elder said that we can have the two hectors next to the spot we want that are owned by the commune.  The rivers the same, the slope is great, and the view is stunning.  He gets the vision.  He has caught hope.  He tells us that they will do whatever it takes to see us partner with them.

    We have found our spot and started to put down our roots.  This challenge is just one of many in our way, but if it was easy we wouldn’t need to do it, it would already be done. Am I Worried? No, but we are weeks away from starting to build on land that we still don’t own with money we still have not raised… It will all happen though, it will all happen.

     

    Coffee Guy

     

  • Underneath the coffee trees

    I love it under the coffee trees. Don’t you? We’re off to the coffee hills again tomorrow. I’ll be photographing more of the harvest process and Coffee Guy will be talking with farmers and making sure the coffee cherries are being processed correctly .

    I can’t wait. Being among the coffee trees re-connects me with the very reason we made such a dramatic move in the first place. My boys run free in their gum boots in the middle of Africa and my heart swells a bah-zillion times.

    Love,

    me

     

  • The Burundi Coffee Harvest

    It’s harvest time here in Burundi and we decided to take the entire family into Burundi’s beautiful coffee hills to see it… and the film crew tagged along too. I don’t know if you will remember, but last year we didn’t see the harvest because we couldn’t get ourselves moved over here in time. It is a beautiful thing to see those coffee cherries bright red on the trees. The harvest will last for almost 90 days this season, so I am sure you will be sick and tired of hearing about it by the time we are through!

    Meanwhile… the amazing cinematographer Sunel filming the picking process. Me with my sassy pants on, caught by Producer Wesley while drying polaroid negatives between the coffee trees. Coffee Guy explaining the picking process for the cameras, while surrounded by kids (some of them his own, most of them not).

    Happy harvest!

    Love,

    me

  • Jute sacks on the mend… and life.

    I hate to admit it…

    (because it might be just a little bit cheesy)

    but I saw myself in these pitiful jute coffee sacks.

    What is it

    about life here…

    that keeps me so totally raw

    all

    of

    the

    time?

    As if THAT NEEDLE is passing through

    me

    EVERY

    DAY.

    Do you know what the French word for DAY is?

    journee

    I can’t help but see the symbolism.

    Every

    DAY

    is

    A

    JOURNEY.

    (I am SHOUTING that, right NOW)

    Throughout this

    JOURNEY

    HERE  in THIS PLACE

    I have felt so totally out of control.

    As if I was loosing my mind, my soul, my everything.

    Well, you guys know…

    you’ve had to

    READ IT.

    But the clouds are clearing.

    The holes seem to be mending.

    SOMEONE

    is

    piecing us all

    back together.

    One

    stich

    at

    a

    time.

    A new season is

    HERE…

    and

    the coffee harvest

    is only a few weeks away.

    love,

    me

    Coffee bag mending for the 2012 season

    Gacokwe Washing Station, Burundi

    ISO 400, 1/1600 sec, f/1.6 (if you care about that stuff)

  • Family Post

    Family Post

    Today I’m taking a step back. Looking at the last few months in pictures. I am blown away with gratitude. I am so grateful. Grateful for the journey we are on. Grateful that we live here even though IT’S TOUGH sometimes. Grateful for the people in our lives (the ones we see every day and the ones we don’t).

    Thanks for sticking with us.

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