Greetings from Mykanos.
We are in the heart of the cosecha at the moment and it is proving a challenge for everyone. As compared to last year, when we were delivering our coffee to the Co-OP as cherries (cerises) due to the abysmal state in which our former administrator had left our beneficidero (processing plant), we are back to doing it ourselves, extracting the beans from the ripe cherries, washing and partly fermenting them and drying them to be bagged and transported as green coffee beans to the Co-Op for sale and exportation.
It means that our beneficidero is working more or less round the clock as the boys process and dry and bag the coffee, starting first thing in the morning and finishing well after midnight.
The rhythm of the cosecha never varies much from day to day. Ripe Coffee cherries are picked during the day and then delivered to our ‘tolva’, or collection hopper, early evening. From the tolva, which is an inverted pyramid-shaped hopper, the cherries are fed down into the ‘despulpadora’, which separates the beans from the cherry pulp. The beans go into tanks to be washed and the pulp goes to be composted and turned into organic fertiliser. The washed beans then go into the dryer (silo) as soon as capacity is available.
What can disrupt the rhythm is excessive rain, which produces an excess of ripe cherries, creating a backlog, as drying the beans cannot be rushed. And if the cherries are ripe they will be picked, as coffee pickers are paid according to the weight of cherries they collect, and they want to collect as many as humanly possible, added to which we can’t afford to have them fall onto the ground
You might remember that we were suffering a paucity of picking power, but just after I wrote my last Letter coffee pickers suddenly appeared and we had no need to import Venezuelans from La Virginia.
We have had a weekly workforce in excess of 100 making payday on Saturday more complicated and arduous. The members of our regular workforce are mostly paid electronically to their smart phones, which is much safer and more convenient than cash. The coffee pickers however have to be paid in cash; exact money only as they have no change. This means organising large amounts of cash in all the denominations, which is both cumbersome and a potential security risk.
The police provide officers to escort cafeteros from the bank to where they are paying workers, usually a coffee shop, to ensure they are not robbed in transit, and last Saturday, which was an especially big payday, Adriano took the two policemen in the rear seats of our car. One of them, the sergeant, was most disgruntled to be told by Adriano to wear his seatbelt (a mandatory condition of riding in our car) even though seatbelt use is compulsory in Colombia and the police are the ones who enforce the law.
Also unlike last year, it is a big season. Coffee trees that we had planted over the past few years were coming on line, as were those trees we pruned 18 months ago. On the 22nd of October 30,000 kilos of coffee cherries were picked and deposited at the tolva, which was a record for a single day. Over that week we picked 75,000 kilos … 75 tonnes. I commiserated with our workers over the amount of work that had to be done, but to a man and woman they said that it was definitely better to have too much than too little.
On the 30th October we sold 9,000 kilos of processed coffee beans to the Co-Op/Federación. It would be nice if the price were a bit higher but hey, one can’t have everything.
One thing we did have was a fondness, and huge respect, for opera diva Jessye Norman, who died on September 30th. We had seen her a few of times in London, and I will always remember her striking solo rendition of La Marseillaise in the Place de la Concorde in 1989 to celebrate the bi-centenary of the French Revolution, bedecked in the French tricolour.
The last time we saw her was a recital in Mexico City in the Palacio de Bellas Artes. We happened to be in Mexico City and jumped at the opportunity to revel in her sublime vocal abilities, in an Art Nouveau / Art Deco theatre adorned with superb murals by Rivera and Siquieros.
On arrival at the Palacio we found ourselves amidst the establishment of Mexico City, represented by rotund men in suits and lithesome women of a certain age festooned with jewels.
“Have you ever seen so many witches?” I said to Adriano.
“Careful,” he said, ”There are three just behind you.”
We took our seats and admired the breathtaking stained glass stage curtain, created by Tiffany of New York from nearly a million pieces of iridescent coloured glass. It features the volcanoes Popacatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl in the centre, and weighs some 24 tons.
It was very warm, and the ladies around us were fanning themselves while the gentlemen perspired and mopped their brows with crisp white handkerchiefs. Suddenly there was an announcement over the PA … Señora Norman had requested the air conditioning to be turned off as it affected her voice. As a result the theatre was very warm and gentlemen were permitted to take off their jackets. There was an audible sigh of relief, and they did.
The visit by Father Reg from London went well. As well as following the coffee process, including visiting some of our farms to monitor the maturation of the coffee cherries and observing the sales process at the Co-Op, he visited local towns including La Virginia, Riosucio, Risaralda and San Clemente.
In view of his particular field of interest we also visited a tiny Franciscan community near San Clemente, and further afield, the city of Buga.
Buga (whose formal name is Guadalajara de Buga) is close to Cali and was founded in 1555 by the Spanish conquistador Sebastián de Belalcázar. Its Basilica de Señor de los Milagros (Cathedral of The Lord of the Miracles) is a major site of pilgrimage in Colombia. It houses an image of Christ called El Señor de los Milagros that is alleged to have been responsible for miraculous cures in the past. There is a constant queue of suppliants filing past seeking cures, blessings or beneficial outcomes to whatever is troubling them.
Adriano raised a lot of eyebrows in Buga due to his socks.
Adriano’s day to day wear involves trousers rolled up to just below the knee, teamed with brightly coloured long socks, usually encased in sandals. As one who often accompanies Adriano in public I can’t help but be amused by the number of people who pretend not to notice as he passes but who proceed to stare and gossip about him when he is out of earshot. In Madrid, not long ago, a young man hailed him and asked him where he was from. “Colombia,” he replied. The young man indicated his socks and sandals and asked, “Is that Colombian style?” “No,” replied Adriano, “it’s my style.”
That’s not to say that Colombian style cannot be just as enchanting.
Last weekend we drove to Cali to meet Adriano’s mother who was arriving from London. We got to the airport at 7pm, parked the car and were walking towards the arrival area when we heard a big cheer, followed soon after by another. Was it the local football team returning after a big victory? There was another big cheer as we approached the doors where passengers were appearing. When we got there we found a crowd of about 200 people waiting to meet loved ones. Every time the doors opened and a passenger emerged with their bags the crowd cheered and clapped raucously, taking the passengers completely by surprise. Their stunned expressions turned immediately into smiles, even grim grumpy-looking middle-aged business types. Without exception they all burst into grins, and some applauded the crowd in return.
Three arriving passengers, after acknowledging the acclaim, passed close by pushing their luggage trolleys.
‘Only in Colombia!’ I heard one say to his fellow travellers.
Love from him and me
Barry
