Tag: model coffee farm

  • The roads to coffee production at Long Miles Coffee

    The roads to coffee production at Long Miles Coffee

    Every coffee that is picked and processed needs a home, which is why coffee production takes different roads within our company.

    Raised drying beds at Long Miles' Bukeye Washing Station in Burundi, East Africa
    Raised drying beds at Bukeye Washing Station in Burundi

    The first road, modeled in Burundi, includes washing station ownership. In Burundi, we work with 5,500 smallholding farmers- who each grow less than a bag of coffee per annum- to produce and bring to market the coffee they grow. To accomplish this, we own three washing stations and work with farmers on eleven unique hills. Another crucial part of this model is farming. We own coffee farms that stand alongside our smallholding farmers. These farms act as model farms for the surrounding communities as well as give us a chance to experiment with and control some of the variables in growing coffee.

    Haron Wachira and Ben Carlson of Long Miles Coffee hand-picking parchment coffee on drying tables at Thunguri Washing Station in Kenya
    Haron Wachira and Ben Carlson hand-sorting coffee at Thunguri Washing Station in Kenya

    The second road coffee production takes within our company is partnership. In Kenya for example, we are partnering with Haron Wachira to rehabilitate and refurbish the Wachira family’s dormant coffee factory and farm located on Mount Kenya, in Kirinyaga County. In our first season, we worked directly with thirty coffee farming families who live in the community. While the Wachira Group is not solely focused on coffee, we share the same vision of working with small-scale coffee farmers to improve their production, access to markets, and the price paid for their coffee.

    Raised drying beds at Long Miles' Heza Washing Station in Burundi, East Africa
    Raised drying beds at Heza Washing Station in Burundi

    We can’t control how much coffee is produced in a season, which is why the third road that coffee production takes at Long Miles is sourcing from partnering coffee producers. Our intention is always to produce our own coffee, but some years we will also share coffees from local partnering coffee producers that have stood out to us on the cupping table. Partnering with these coffees enables us to continue year-round projects and programs that have become essential to who we are, whether that is our team of Long Miles Coffee Scouts, our Trees For Kibira reforestation project, or running Farmer Field Schools– to name a few.

    No matter which of these roads we take, our end goal is the same: producing excellent coffees, uplifting the smallholding farmers who grow them, and meeting you, our roasting partners, where you’re at. You might already know this or be familiar with these names, but these are the coffees that our company produces:

    Long Miles Micro-lots

    To us, micro-lots are coffees that have been carefully curated based on two primary factors: traceable down to a distinct geographical locale where the coffee was grown, and a cup score of 86+ designated by our team. Each delivery of coffee cherry that we receive from our partner farmers at one of our washing stations is sorted and processed differently, depending on the country of origin.

    Kibira Micro-lots

    Kibira micro-lots are coffees that have been processed by coffee producers surrounding our Long Miles Washing Stations. Our cupping lab and quality control team cups through many dozens of lots in order to find the best coffees to partner with. We source these 86+ scoring coffees knowing that at every step of the way they have been processed according to the Long Miles Coffee standard. Partnering with these coffees enables us to continue programs that have become essential to who we are, namely the Long Miles Coffee Scouts and Trees For Kibira. 

    Kibira

    Kibira lots represent coffees that have been sourced from partnering coffee producers. These coffees, ranging in quality and price, are tailored to your needs based on pre-harvest conversations and are typically contracted in larger quantities.

    Hills

    Our priority is to produce coffee that is of micro-lot quality, yet some of the coffees that we process fall slightly below the 86 mark designated by our team. Coffees that score between 84-85 points, are blended together and are traceable by washing station and called “Hills.”

    If you have any questions about our coffee, please get in touch!

  • Before + Now: Gervais

    Before + Now: Gervais

    Close-up portrait of a Burundian coffee farmer

    Gervais is a seventy-nine year old coffee farmer from the small, coffee-producing nation of Burundi, East Africa. He started farming coffee in 1960, when Burundi was just two years shy of gaining its independence from Belgian rule. As the oldest person in his community, he has dubbed himself as the “grandfather of Gaharo hill”; the area where he lives and grows his coffee. That, and the fact that his grandchildren seem to follow him wherever he goes. 

    “My house is close to the road. Children in the community often pass by my home to visit. I am also the oldest person in my community. I am like the grandfather of Gaharo hill.”

    Growing up, his father- a traditional beekeeper- taught him how to build a beehive from the wood of the umwungo tree (more commonly known as polyscias fulva, an evergreen indigenous to Burundi). Even though he never became a beekeeper himself, Gervais still grows these trees to sell the wood. 

    If you ask him, Gervais will tell you that his coffee farm is a source of pride and joy. He used to have just under 300 Heirloom Bourbon coffee trees planted on the same plot of land that his house stands on, but as he’s gotten older, he’s started giving them away to his children. As an avid member of Farmer Field School, Gervais’ coffee farm is a model that other farmers in the community can visit to learn best farming practices from him. 

    “The governor of Muramvya1 once visited my plantation during a local spraying campaign because it is so nice.”

    Over the years, he has planted banana palms, bamboo, and avocado trees alongside his coffee to diversify his farm and protect the soil. At one point, he even started a red wiggler worm farm. More recently, Gervais has started producing organic fertilizer for his coffee trees by composting banana stalks and leaves with ash leftover from cooking. 

    When we asked Gervais what he’ll do with the photos he took, he replied,

    “I am going to show my children the photos I took. I want them to remember that I worked in coffee.”

    A young child playing in a coffee tree in Burundi
    “This is my grandchild. He always comes with me to my plantation. He follows me, wherever I go. He knows that coffee is important. He knows that if we have coffee, we have rice.”
    A Burundian coffee farmer pruning his coffee trees in a formal suit
    “I was pruning my trees. I always wear my suit. When I was young, I had many suits. Now, I only have this one.”
    A Burundian woman water vegetables growing outside her father's home
    “My daughter. She was watering the vegetables outside our house.”
    A group of Burundian women sorting coffee at the Long Miles Coffee Washing Station
    “The women who were sorting coffee at the washing station. I love this washing station. It’s encouraging to see women working in coffee, looking after plantations and earning money.”

    Footnotes

    1. Muramvya is a province in the central part of the country, and also Gervais’ home province.

    “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. 

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