Tag: long miles coffee project

Where Has The Coffee Gone?

During every single harvest we are faced with unwelcome surprises.

Whether we are blindsided by a drought, a coup attempt, ill-timed rains, a fuel shortage, or a demanding new government policy; we have learned to expect the unexpected. And yet, 2021 has been able to present some challenges that still feel shocking. The 2021 harvest brought three very big surprises in Burundi: a small crop, a new government policy, and unbelievable shipping challenges.

You could say that the small crop should not have been a surprise. It is, after all, the third harvest in a row that has produced dismal yields. That is, however, exactly why it was such a surprise and here’s why.

Twenty-eighteen was a very large harvest in Burundi. Following natural plant cycles, a small harvest in 2019 was expected as it is not uncommon for coffee plants to undergo boom and bust production cycles. Twenty-nineteen ended up being even smaller than expected – much smaller. Twenty-twenty was expected to rebound to a more “normal” production volume. This did not, however, happen. This is very likely due to the shifting climate and the fact that Burundi more or less experienced rain when it typically does not, and did not get rain when it typically does. Much of the coffee on the trees that year went from green to brown without ever having a chance to ripen.

With two low production years under our belts, 2021 was expected to be a year of good volume. The season started very late, and very slow. As coffee cherry trickled into the three Long Miles washing stations, hopes remained high for a year of decent volume as the climate was more or less cooperating.

But, the large volumes simply never came in.

This was, like the prior years, a national phenomenon; all of Long Miles’ neighbors and friends experienced the same thing. Simply put, there was very little coffee. The most heartbreaking statistic we recognized this season is the fact that the 2019, 2020, and 2021 seasons added together, do not match the volume that we produced in 2018 alone.

The second big shock of the year came in the form of a new policy set in place by the Burundi government.

Just as we were in the process of exporting our first container of the year, a new policy made it such that all coffee must be paid in full before it could be loaded into a container.

This may sound small and simple enough, but simply put, it is not how this type of business is/has been done. Getting financial institutions to quickly pivot on how six figure transactions are handled is no easy task. Especially at a time when risk analysts are seemingly much more hesitant than in recent years. We are very grateful to our importing partners who have been able to be nimble and make exceptions to how business is normally done in order to get coffee moving.

Lastly, there is the current state of the shipping industry. Most people are now aware because of the contents of their grocers shelves that shipping and logistics have been a nightmare for the past sixteen months or so. It is no surprise that everyone in coffee exporting/importing has been experiencing these challenges first hand. East Africa, in general – and Burundi, specifically – is never a logistics cakewalk.

Last year, a normal quote from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to New York would be somewhere around $1,200 per container. This year we have seen quotes above $13,000 – and these are not even guaranteed shipments.

Despite these challenges, the quality produced this year was some of our best ever. The first USA-bound container is currently in a bonded warehouse in Dar as Salaam, waiting to be put on a ship. We are moving as quickly as possible to get the next three containers moving, as well.

The next container to move will be heading to Antwerp and the remaining two will go to the States. While most of the coffee is pre-sold, having been committed to partners with long-term agreements and contracts, we welcome you to reach out to david@longmilescoffee.com or info@longmilesscoffee.com to discuss next year and also our Kenya and Uganda offerings. The 2022 harvest flowering (that just took place in Burundi) is looking very promising. Add to this our projects taking off in Kenya and Uganda and we are hopeful that in the very near future we will have more than enough coffee for all of our partners. Please stay with us and please stay in touch.

October 26, 2021
Women in Coffee: Joy Mavugo of the Long Miles Coffee Story Team

Joy joined Long Miles in 2018, and has been an invaluable member of the Story Team ever since. With a background in public health, she uses every opportunity to share what she’s learned with partner farmers while listening to, and finding ways to share their stories.

What is your earliest memory of coffee?

I grew up seeing coffee being ground in our house because it is my dad’s favorite drink, but I had no idea of where coffee came from. In primary school, I learned that in Burundi we have industrial or export crops that brings foreign currency into the country. At that time, it was cotton, tea, and coffee. Something that confused me was hearing that coffee brings foreign currency into the country, meanwhile my dad was buying it in Burundian francs. But, as I was still a child, I didn’t ask.

How and when did you get involved in the coffee industry?

When I heard about Ben and Kristy [Carlson], before meeting them, I had been told that they are in coffee business. In my mind, being in the “coffee business” was the shops where people used to meet for coffee, places like Café Gourmand in Bujumbura, and other places like that. As I mentioned, I didn’t know anything about coffee apart from seeing my dad drink it. I never thought about working in coffee.

In 2016, during coffee harvest, the Carlsons took me with to visit Bukeye Washing Station. There were two things that surprised me that first time visiting a washing station. One, was seeing so many people working there. Second, was seeing cherries. When they told me that it was coffee, the first question that came to mind was, “Are there two kinds of coffee?” This was the comparison I was making between coffee in the cup (the one I used to see my dad drink, and in the coffee shops), and coffee cherries at the selection tables.

There were a couple of reasons that pushed me to work in coffee. Coffee connects different people from different cultures, different countries, and different continents. Coffee is people. This is the reason that I was interested to learn more about coffee, and is something that I am now proud to be a part of. Of course, there are still many, many things to learn in coffee, but at least today I can help somebody to understand coffee out of the cup.

The second reason that pushed me to work in coffee is to help others with my degree in Public Health. I thought maybe there are people who need my help, especially in upcountry Burundi where many people don’t have access to information like they do in the city.

What is your role in the coffee supply chain?

I started working in coffee in 2018. My role is to listen to, collect, and share farmers’ stories. Working in coffee means a lot to me. I am working in the Story Team, and we are in communications. Together, we are helping the world understand the story of coffee: its origin, who grows it, what growing coffee looks like, what a coffee farm is like, what happens to coffee at the washing station, what the next step is after processing it at the washing station…

I don’t use my background in public health every day, but there are always opportunities to do it. I have many examples, but I’ll just share one:

I visited a coffee farmer on Gaharo Hill, and during the interview they explained the challenges farmers face, one of them being malaria. Both her husband and baby were sick with malaria at the time. While she was talking, I saw that in front of her house, there was a small farm of vegetables covered with a mosquito net. During our conversation, I asked why the mosquito net was covering the vegetables. She said that it prevented the chickens from eating the leaves. I asked her if she knows the cause of malaria, to which she replied, “It’s mangoes”. I asked her, why mangoes? “Because many people get malaria when it’s mango season”.

I took the time to explain the actual causes of malaria, that mosquitoes are prevalent during mango season because of the rains during that time of year, and how to prevent malaria. It was a really valuable discussion!

Apart from growing coffee, farmers are growing other crops that are good for their health, but don’t always eat them. Through the interviewing process, I’ve been able to help them to understand the relationship between food and health.

Are there any challenges that you think exclude women from working in coffee?

There are no challenges that exclude women from working in coffee. The problem is the lack of information, or having access to false information. For example, women farmers have repeatedly heard something that’s not true, which is that “coffee is for men”. Other women farmers know that coffee can be prepared as a drink, but don’t know that there are many other things to do in coffee. Sometimes, women in Burundi don’t have enough time to research as men do.

When you consider the coffee industry, do you think that women are empowered to be in leadership and decision-making roles?

In the coffee industry the number of women must be less than men, but those women who are there are empowered to be in leadership and decision-making roles.

Is there anything that you would like to learn or do to further your understanding of how coffee is produced or processed?

I would like to improve my photography skills, and how to share information on social media.

September 30, 2021
Long Miles x Leaderboard Coffee

Image by Julianna Stallings

Earlier this past summer, Grant Gamble of Culture Coffee Project reached out to us asking if we would like to contribute to a new project that he had somewhat recently launched with Suneal Pabari. Seasoned pros, Grant has put on countless well-known and well-attended coffee events, and Suneal is one of the founders of The Roasters Pack. Fittingly, their brainchild, Leaderboard Coffee, is a coffee subscription- of sorts. Yes, it is a curated selection of ten unlabelled (intended to be tasted blind) coffees you receive in the mail, but Leaderboard has the look and feel of a coffee event- a really fun and educational one at that.

Designed for both coffee enthusiasts and coffee professionals, Leaderboard, “…believe[s] that learning about coffee should be fun, not intimidating.” While receiving ten unlabelled coffees to taste side-by-side is a hugely educational process in itself, Suneal and Grant have gone even further. Firstly, they have created a quiz that has an interface based on the concept of a “real-life-video-game,” and secondly, they have connected with coffee professionals around the globe to create content that helps the players of Leaderboard better identify the coffees they are tasting.

“…learning about coffee should be fun, not intimidating.”

It was for this reason that Grant reached out to us. Ben Carlson, co-founder of Long Miles, along with David Stallings, who handles Roaster Relations for Long Miles, together created a thirty-three minute long video for Leaderboard. In the video, Ben dives into the history of coffee production in Burundi, and David talks about tasting coffees from the Great Lakes region of East Africa, generally and Burundi coffee, more specifically.

Watch the video below, and definitely check out Leaderboard! If you are interested in expanding your coffee palate and learning more about coffee producing countries, processing methods, coffee varieties, and more, Leaderboard is an amazing and fun resource!

Burundi Deep Dive with David Stallings & Ben Carlson of Long Miles Coffee Project
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September 24, 2021
Women in Coffee: Aline, Assistant Manager of Coffee Quality Control

Growing up, Aline didn’t know that one day she would work in the coffee sector in Burundi. She joined the Long Miles team back in 2014 as a supervisor of the teams hand-picking parchment coffee for defects. Now, Aline is the Assistant Manager of Coffee Quality Control at Bukeye Washing Station.

What is your earliest memory of coffee?

When I heard about the Long Miles Washing Station on Gaharo hill, I decided to ask if they had a job for me. I had no idea of what happens at a coffee washing station, and didn’t know anything about processing coffee. At the time, the washing station manager told me that there were no jobs for women, that there were only jobs for men. I asked him to give me a chance working there so that he could see that I was capable of learning. After a month, he appreciated how I worked and he offered me a full-time job.

What is your role in the coffee supply chain?

When I started out, I was in charge of supervising the hand-picking team. Now, I am the Assistant Manager of Coffee Quality Control at Bukeye Washing Station.

What does a ‘’typical day’’ look like for you?

During coffee harvest, I do the same thing: control the steps that coffee goes through, especially during the hand-picking stage at the cherry selection tables.

What does working in coffee mean for you?

It’s proof that women , especially in the rural areas of Burundi, are as capable of working in coffee as men.

Are there any challenges that you think exclude women from working in coffee?

I think that the challenges for some women- not just those working in the coffee sector- is that they are working mothers. Working at night can be a big challenge. I think that this is the reason why men say that women are not able to work in coffee, but for me it’s not a question of being able but how many responsibilities a woman has to take on.

When you consider the coffee industry, do you think that women are empowered to be in leadership and decision-making roles?

In the organization that I work for, a woman has the same place as a man. Gender is respected. There are women representatives in all the teams, and they can make decisions in their roles.

Is there anyone in the coffee industry who inspires you?

I don’t know yet.

Is there anything that you would like to learn or do to further your understanding of coffee?

Working in the coffee sector has given me the opportunity of learning many things. I can even teach others what I’ve learnt. In Burundi, there is no school for teaching you about coffee, but working in coffee is a lesson in itself. You can learn as you work. I have learnt about coffee quality, from cherry to parchment, but I still need to learn more about coffee quality from parchment to cup.

September 17, 2021
Women in Coffee: Asterie, leader of the Long Miles Coffee Scouts

Asterie has been a part of the Long Miles Coffee team since 2016. She first joined as a Coffee Scout, and six years later is leading the Heza Coffee Scout team.

What is your earliest memory of coffee?

My earliest memory is the joy that I experienced when I got a job in coffee. I grew up hearing that it’s not “normal” for a woman to work in the coffee sector, and that coffee is for men.

How did you get involved in coffee?

I started working in the coffee sector in 2016. At the time, Long Miles was looking for people to join their team of Coffee Scouts. I wrote a test, and came out on top. I was a Coffee Scouts for two years, and was then promoted as a supervisor of the Coffee Scouts.

What is your role in the coffee supply chain?

My job is to plan and supervise all of the Coffee Scout’s activities that are happening on the coffee farms. I spend all of my time with the team of Coffee Scouts and partnering farmers.

What does a ‘’typical day’’ look like for you?

As a mother, the first thing that I do every day is spending time with my children and feeding them. Then I go to work, and after work I have to prepare supper and spend time with my children.

Asterie with the Heza Coffee Scouts

What does working in coffee mean to you?

To me, it means that coffee is for everyone- it’s not just limited to men.

Are there any challenges that exclude women from working in coffee?

In Burundi, men often have the interpretation that women are not able, but we are able. One challenge is that during coffee harvest the team work longer hours than off-season, which is not possible for women living upcountry. We’re still caught up in a kind of “prison culture”. A woman living outside of the city is still expected to harvest crops and prepare meals, even if her husband is around. If you’re out of your house after 7pm, you can be considered as a woman who “took the place of a man” in the house. When we work less hours than men, it doesn’t mean that we’re not able but have to continue with other activities at home.

When you consider the coffee industry, do you think that women are empowered to be in leadership and decision-making roles?

Yes. At Long Miles, women are represented but when I look around my neighborhood, women are considered as people of the kitchen or valleys (where people have to look for food). Coffee is considered to be a crop for men because it brings money, and where there is money there is a place for decision-making…and women aren’t considered able to make these kinds of decisions.

What does gender equity in coffee look like?

This is hard for me to say because I’ve never worked for anyone other than Long Miles. The only thing that I can say is that gender equality looks like women being represented in every team. If you compare the number of men and women working in coffee, men outnumber women. I think this happens because when companies are looking for workers, women are often busy with other work so they miss out on the information but the men are always there.

Is there anyone in the coffee industry who inspires you?

I don’t know, I haven’t thought about it.

Is there anything that you would like to learn or do to further your understanding of coffee?

I have learned many things about how to take care of coffee farms, and I know a bit about cherry processing but I still want to learn more about processing parchment coffee.

September 10, 2021
Women in Coffee: Bernadette from Munyinya hill

Bernadette pruning the coffee trees on her family’s farm.

Bernadette is a partner coffee farmer from Munyinya hill in Burundi. She is also a member of the Kerebuka Coffee Association that encourages women involved in coffee to know their value. Her earliest memory of coffee was planting it together with husband just after they got married, to help raise their family.

What is your role in the coffee supply chain?

I am a coffee farmer.

What does a ‘’typical day’’ look like for you?

I spend my time doing farm work on our family’s land, and looking for food. I was also chosen by the government agronomists to supervise the agricultural activities happening on Munyinya hill.

Are there any challenges that exclude women from working in coffee?

From my experience, men often minimize a woman’s value. They say that we’re not able and we just accept that. We know that we are able, but the problem is that we’re scared to show our capacity. In Burundi, women have to wait for the men in our families to make the decisions. This is one of the reasons why I encourage women living on Munyinya hill to go to school. People who go to school have confidence.

An example that I can share is that some women in our association have had the courage to ask their husbands for their own coffee farms so that they can earn their own money. By doing this, they don’t have to rely on their husbands when deciding how this money should be spent. Unfortunately, some of these women still have to wait for their husbands to decide how to use their money.

What does gender equity in coffee look like?

The number of women in coffee is limited, and this needs to change for there to be gender equity in coffee.

Is there anything that you would like to learn or do to further your understanding of coffee?

No, I’m getting too old. I don’t need to learn more things.

September 9, 2021
How Long Miles ensures coffee quality, from farm to cup

Written by Robyn-Leigh van Laren in collaboration with ROEST Coffee

Every step that coffee takes in the process from seed to cup impacts its quality. Ensuring coffee quality at every touch point has been a steep learning curve for the Long Miles Coffee team, and is something they are continuously learning to improve with every coffee harvest that comes to pass.

“Could we actually produce specialty coffee in Burundi?“

The Carlson family at Bukeye Washing Station.

When Long Miles’ co-founders, Ben and Kristy Carlson, moved to Burundi in 2011, they quickly realized that the most central place to see transformative change in the lives of coffee farmers and the quality of their coffee was at the washing station. In early 2013, the Carlsons built Bukeye, the first Long Miles Washing Station, with the underlying goal of answering the question, “Could we actually produce specialty coffee in Burundi?”

That same year, Lauren Kagori (née Rosenberg), a PhD candidate from South Africa, joined the Long Miles Team as their first Farmer Relations Officer. Kagori’s role was to understand coffee farmers’ relationship to the washing station. As they began to build trust and work with the coffee farming communities around the washing station, it became clear to Kagori that farmers’ greatest challenge to coffee quality was the lack of access to inputs: fertilizer, lime, mulch, and to some degree access to loans to pay laborers to work on their farms.

“You don’t just engage with farmers a month or two before harvest. It’s a year-round effort.”

Lauren Kagori, Long Miles Coffee’s first Farmer Relations Officer.

By the end of their first harvest, Long Miles produced only eighty bags of coffee- just a quarter of a container. Needless to say, the coffee didn’t taste very good that year and many roasters rejected the lots upon arrival in the United States. “We learned that you don’t just engage with farmers a month or two before harvest; it’s a year-round effort”, Kagori explains.

This was a turning point for Long Miles. They had built a washing station, invested in a community of smallholder coffee growers, and grown a team of people. But there was an obvious limit to the return on their investment if they didn’t invest in bottom lines that went beyond profitability.

Improving Coffee Quality on the Farm

The Long Miles team came up with all sorts of innovative ideas to help guide farmers on how to improve their coffee’s quality. The first set of interns spent hours perusing local paint stores for the exact shade of red that resembled a ripened coffee cherry. The idea was to paint the bases of woven baskets that farmers generally use to collect hand-picked coffee cherries. It quickly went from baskets to dipping small wooden chips in the same red paint that farmers could easily slip in and out of their pockets to compare their ripening cherries against. Back at the washing station, a borehole was drilled so that their team could start processing coffee with clean groundwater instead of water from a nearby river.

Around that time, another challenge was rising, both at the farm level and on the cupping table: the Potato Taste Defect. It took a trip to visit an established coffee producer in Rwanda and interviews with Long Miles’ partner roasters to realize that Potato Taste Defect was a real issue- not just in Burundi, but in neighboring coffee-growing countries too. That’s how the Long Miles Coffee Scouts came to be.

Led by Epaphras Ndikumana, Social and Environmental Impact Leader at Long Miles, the Coffee Scouts guide partner farmers through the cherry picking process on their farms while also scouting for and removing any antestia bugs (the insect linked to the Potato Taste Defect). The Coffee Scouts also encourage farmers to practice floating cherries at home and then again at the washing stations. Standing side-by-side with farmers at the washing stations, the Scouts help to hand-sort their cherries for ripeness and visible defects. Back on the farm, they distribute indigenous and shade trees to partner coffee farmers, encouraging them to plant green manures to improve soil health, mitigate climate change and the productivity of their coffee trees. The Coffee Scouts have been pivotal in improving the quality of Burundi coffee, and the Potato Taste Defect has since become increasingly less common on our cupping tables.

“The activities of our social projects help partner coffee farmers to improve their agricultural practices which increases the productivity and quality of their coffee in the long run”, Ndikumana says. He has done extensive research on how to improve the productivity of Burundian farmers’ coffee trees and soil health, initiating programs like the PIP approach (translated from French as ‘Integrated Farm Plans’) and Farmer Field Schools within the farming communities that Long Miles works with in Burundi.

Long Miles’ Coffee and Quality Production Manager, Seth Nduwayo, adds to this by explaining that, “Our protocols, standards and communication are the most powerful tools that help us to produce quality coffee in a systemized way. We don’t only make efforts to perform well but try to make sure we perform more consistently while also aiming to improve our performance.” Ensuring coffee quality quietly continues long after harvest has ended at the dry mill. Nduwayo and the Long Miles team spend weeks at a time, following their coffee through innumerable quality steps at the mill: from hulling to grading, density sorting, handsorting, weighing, and eventually loading containers for export.

Green grading and sample roasting

On the other side of the world, David Stallings, head of Roaster and Importer Relations, ensures that coffee goes through meticulous quality steps once it reaches the Long Miles Coffee Lab in North America. He starts by measuring the water activity, performing a moisture and UV analysis of the coffee weighing and then roasting each sample using our ROEST. All the relevant physical data about each sample is documented before the process is repeated over and over again before samples are sent to their roasting partners across the globe.

Photo by Julianna Stallings

During coffee season, Stallings typically processes and on ROEST around 120 samples a week:

“The ROEST sample roaster may be the most perfect small-scale machine yet designed to explore the many different aspects of coffee roasting that I learned about through various roasting systems. The capability to develop profiles based on different parameters and the machine’s ability to develop coffee remarkably evenly, coupled with its ease of use and maintenance, make it an essential tool in my professional life.”

Click below to read more about how David Stallings developed the Long Miles ROEST profiles.

Photo by Julianna Stallings

Coffee Quality is about People.

It would be remiss not to acknowledge that there is countless research, processes, and tools, like the ROEST sample roaster, used at every touchpoint along coffee’s journey, but ensuring the quality of Long Miles’ coffee really comes down to people. Each coffee farming family that Long Miles works with. By continuing to listen to their thoughts and understand their challenges and needs, they continue to put steps in place to improve the quality of their coffee. The team of Coffee Scouts, working tirelessly throughout the year guiding partner farmers on best agricultural practices. It’s every member of the Long Miles team, investing in the long-term impact of smallholder coffee farmers in East Africa and the coffee they produce.

All this before any coffee reaches your cup.

August 4, 2021
The challenge of water at Ninga Washing Station

In Burundi, a washing station (or wet mill) is a communal space. It doesn’t just belong to those who build, own or manage it, and it’s not just a place for coffee farmers to deliver their coffee cherries to. A washing station is a sign of development within a community; a landmark where neighbors can gather, use it as a meeting place, find jobs, and often collect water.

“Seeing a washing station gives us hope. Before there was nothing, no building – it was only a hill. Now, there’s a washing station and mzungus are buying coffee. We continue seeing change and new building, and it gives us hope that the future will be good for the community.”

– Lucien, a partner coffee farmer from Camizi hill.

There are so many things to take into consideration when building a washing station. Does the area have a reputation for growing coffee? Is there a need for it? Is there suitable land available? What impact will its existence have on the environment? Will it be profitable? More, but not most importantly, is there an available water source?

Coffee simply cannot exist without water. Not only is water important for the growth and development of a coffee seed and plant, it’s necessary for processing coffee. The quality steps of floating and rinsing coffee cherries to pulping, grading, fermenting, and soaking parchment coffee wouldn’t be possible without an abundance of water. Of course, the importance of water is another conversation when it comes to cupping and brewing coffee.

Getting clean water in large quantities to the Long Miles Washing Stations has been a challenge for us over the years. When Heza opened back in 2014, we were sourcing water from two catchment areas on Gitwe hill. We shared a water source with the communities living around the washing station, but struggled with frequently broken pipes causing an insufficient supply of water to flow to Heza. We tried everything from fixing the pipes to recycling the water before finding a new water source four kilometers away, and pumping water from there to the station.

Umuhini mushasha, utera amababa.

“A new handle leaves you with some pain in your hand.”

– Raphael Kayembe, Managing Director of Long Miles in Burundi.

This Kirundi phrase has stuck with us because it seems to aptly describe the blistering and bruising it took our team to get Ninga, our new washing station, fully operational in time for the season opener this year.

In 2019, after purchasing the land where Ninga Washing Station would eventually stand, we worked with consultants to dig a well and install a hand-pump to access clean water. With our water source in place, we turned our focus to the build out of the station. It was only when it came to installing and connecting our McKinnon depulper to the water pipes that we realized the well wasn’t deep enough to access clean groundwater at the quantity and quality that we needed. Although community members had been collecting water for washing clothes from the pump since the day it was installed, it wasn’t suitable for cooking or drinking, let alone processing coffee.

We tried adapting the initial drilling, installing a new pump, and making tweaks to improve the water’s quality. The original pump was supposed to produce 3m³ of clean water per hour but through the redevelopment we found that it was only producing 1m³ of unclean water per hour. At 40m deep, the pump was still getting blocked with mud. Even after disassembling and cleaning it, the water that flowed from the pump was littered with pebbles and sand.

With the coffee trees starting to ripen and farmers anxious about having to deliver their harvest elsewhere, we couldn’t delay the opening of Ninga any longer. Without a fully operational washing station at this point, we made the call to start collecting coffee cherries from partner farmers and processed our first sun-dried Natural micro-lots of the season.

Behind the scenes, we continued exploring every alternative water source in the areas surrounding Ninga Washing Station for over a month. The sources that we could find were too far away to connect to (some fifteen kilometres from the washing station), had a low outflow of water or were already at capacity. After a lot of consideration, we bit the bullet and contracted a new consultant to perform a new drilling. It was our last hope.

Following a week of drilling, we found that clean groundwater was flowing at 65m deep. Without really realizing it, the doubt that we could get this fixed in time had been niggling away in our mind and we had been holding our breath for weeks. It was the sight of clean, flowing water that finally allowed the team to collectively let out a sigh of relief. With the hardest part behind us, we were fortunate enough to find all the additional parts in the country: the drill, electric pump, and pipes.

Not only have we been able to produce Fully Washed and Naturally processed coffees at Ninga Washing Station this season, but the tap has been opened to the neighboring communities once again for water collection. We’re especially excited about the anaerobically fermented micro-lots that we’ve processed using our new Jack Bins. Despite the challenge of water this harvest season, the quality of our Ninga coffees is looking like our best year yet!

Have you got questions about our current (2021) crop of Burundi coffee? Please get in touch with David Stallings, head of Roaster and Importer Relations at Long Miles Coffee.

July 9, 2021
Before + Now: Damien
“I have young sons who must have stolen the camera and taken pictures without me knowing.”

Damien is a seventy-seven-year-old coffee farmer from Nkonge hill in Burundi who seems to carry his walking cane, worn leather hat and good sense of humour everywhere he goes. The last time that Damien held a copy of his photograph was when he applied for his national identity card in the early 1960s.

He waved his cane wildly in the air a couple of times when talking about his photos, laughing at himself when he couldn’t quite make out what he had tried to capture. “I have young sons who must have stolen the camera and taken pictures without me knowing,” he told us while flicking through his stack of printed photos for the first time. Damien comes from a big but tightly-knit family. He has over thirty grandchildren, and the youngest love walking to his house to spend time with their sokuru¹.

“In our family, everyone helps with coffee. During the coffee harvest, we all pick our coffee cherries and carry them to the washing station.”

My grandchildren and neighbor’s children. They were playing together, and I asked them to raise their hands so that I could take their photo. I enjoy playing with my grandchildren. They come to my house to play. I can also ask them to help me with things if my wife is not at home, like fetching water.

My house is on the left. These clothes were out to dry. We use tree branches to hang our clothes on.

My grandchildren are in this photo. They were playing with the neighbors’ children when they asked grandpa to take a photo, then others came who also wanted to be in the picture. I enjoy having a big family. We are close and have good relationships.

Beans are very important in Burundi. I think all over the world they are eating beans. We eat more beans than Rwanda.

This cow belongs to my niece. It has its own room in their house. It’s really fat, which pleases me.

My neighbor was sitting in front of his banana trees. He took this position just for the photo.

Footnotes
1. Sokuru (Kirundi: grandfather)
“Before + Now” is dedicated to bringing the voices of marginalized coffee farmers into the field of vision of everyday coffee consumers. It includes a series of photographs made by coffee farmers in Burundi, East Africa as well as a large-format portrait of each farmer. This series makes it possible not only to see life in East Africa and the coffee process, but also to connect clearly with the dreams, fears, and hopes of coffee farmers. Read more about “Before + Now” here.
June 14, 2021

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