Greetings from Mykanos.
We would like to wish Happy New Year to you all.
December was primarily the month of the cosecha … the coffee harvest.
As I mentioned in a previous Letter this was the first cosecha in more than a decade of which we have been solely in charge … sorry, I mean of which Adriano was solely in charge.
Inevitably it is quite a challenge, so we simplified things a bit in the interests of keeping us both sane, or at least preventing him going insane through the pressure, and me doing likewise as I concentrate on keeping him sane.
We were, and still are, selling our coffee as freshly picked coffee cherries, delivering them daily to the Co-Op’s state-of-the-art processing plant, situated just up the road, between Rancho Grande and Anserma.
Previously we would sell the coffee to the Co-Op as processed beans, but our beneficidero is in poor shape. It hadn’t been maintained well and needs work to get it back into proper shape, and this is not the time of the year to get things like that sorted.
We get less when we sell it to the Co-Op as cherries, but at least we know that all the coffee that is being picked is generating revenue for us with which to pay wages, bills and us.
More important, as far as I am concerned, is that, at this particularly challenging time, we are not processing until 2 a.m., seven days a week, as well as worrying about quality control, possible robbery, flagging workers and complications such as power outages and inclement weather.
Most important, Adriano doesn’t have to cope with eight times the stress concomitant with overseeing the entire procedure of separating beans from cherries, and washing, fermenting, drying and packing, on top of keeping an eye on picking the coffee cherries in the first place, and managing harvesting and selling of plantain and bananas.
Next season, probably for La Traviesa in April, we will be better equipped both in terms of equipment and manpower.
As well as collecting coffee, we have been selling lots of fish from our ponds at Mykanos, namely tilapia. We now have a well-developed market: employees and their families and friends, suppliers and their families and friends, and clients and their families and friends. Friday is the key day of course, and those who like our fish love getting a couple of kilos caught that morning for lunch or dinner that day. We have been so successful we now have to restock with fingerlings so we are ready for Easter. We still have some very nice ones at Rancho Grande for our own consumption, often as ceviche ala Peruana, or wrapped in banana leaves and baked.
Adriano does a great ceviche, especially following one of our trips to Lima. We ate at La Gloria for the first time. It’s one of our favourite restaurants. The chef was interested in the way we were ordering and came out to have a look at us. Chats followed, he suggested some things, and later Adriano asked him about his ceviche. The most important point was not to add the limejuice too early; do it just before it goes to the table. But I am sure you knew that.
Of course December is also the month of Christmas festivities and the lead up to New Year. We hope you had an enjoyable, rewarding and fulfilling Christmas, however you chose to celebrate it. We also hope that the year ahead brings you success, joy and satisfaction.
As for us, on the 25th we had a small Christmas lunch; small in numbers but not in quantity. Adriano cooked an enormous ‘sancocho’, our most famous local specialty: a soup/stew with three meats (Chicken, Beef, Pork), yucca (cassava), potatoes, plantain, maize and rice. It is served as ‘sopa y seco’ (wet and dry), a soup full of bits, and a plate full of bigger bits. Dessert was ‘natilla’, the traditional Colombian ‘christmas pudding’, made from ground maize with coconut, panela, dried fruits and/or anything else the chef decides. It requires about three hours stirring and is then poured into containers where it sets, either to be eaten immediately or turned out, wrapped and given to all and sundry as a gift.
December 31 found us in Medellin, in part to see the famous ‘alumbrados’ (Christmas lights) but more to have a couple of days break from the everyday challenges of coffee production.
The last time we saw the Christmas lights they were strung above a kilometre and a half of the river (Rio Medellin), and we strolled along the riverside path, bedecked with freelance food vendors, to see them. These days they have been relocated to a large park, and organised into a circuit around a lake, offering much more developed food, drink and snack outlets. It is aimed very much at regulated mass catering, and the locals respond by attending ‘en masse’. A bit too ‘masse’ for me, but maybe I am just getting old. The lights were great however.
Christmas is a time for lights in Colombia and every city, town, pueblo and house does its best to brighten up the season. We stopped overnight in Jerico on the way to Medellin, and their Christmas display was almost as impressive. They certainly outshone the lights in Anserma. Jerico is a gold mining town and was founded in 1850, which pales in comparison to Anserma, founded in 1539, but it is the birthplace of Colombia’s only saint, Laura of Saint Catherine of Siena, canonized by Pope Francis in 2013. And even though it is some 300 years younger than Anserma it looks much more authentic and is a major tourist attraction, which Anserma definitely is not.
Anserma is not behind the times however. To confirm that it is as modern as tomorrow, we have a new sign as you enter the town admonishing drivers to ‘Respeta el Semáforo’ (Respect the Traffic Light).
The only problem is that Anserma does not have a traffic light.
Maybe in 2019?
Love from him and me,
Baz
