Greetings from Mykanos.
I can’t really send greetings from anywhere else, as this is where I am, and have been since February. Yes, we are still self-isolating on the farm, with Adriano making as few trips as possible to oversee workers, monitor the coffee processing and to visit the Co-Op to negotiate coffee prices, masked and observing social distancing all the while. I am not allowed to go to town at all.
Why?
Last time I reported, we had gone from one case of Covid-19 over five months, to 25 in just one month. Well, lockdown officially finished, more or less, during September and since then we have climbed to more than 200 cases in Anserma, with 18 fatalities.
Why?
Like so many other places in the world, it was deemed imperative to restart business and earning again to save the economic health, both of the country and of the population, and too many got too relaxed too soon, forgetting or ignoring the fact that the virus is still circulating and it is vital to take steps to avoid it. Younger people were particularly nonchalant, believing either in their own invulnerability or collective fatalism, or both.
It is not Herd Mentality, as Donald Trump wrongly referred to Herd Immunity; more like Herd Insanity.
What excursions I have had, have been restricted to our farms. For instance, we visited Jardines a few times to see how the tree planting is progressing. We have a half built house there, which will be a future residence, but Adriano is keen to get a lot of trees well established before we continue with it. Some of them are along the fence on the edge of the road that runs past us from Anserma to Risaralda. It is a minor road and quite quiet, hosting more local pedestrians than vehicles. Next to what is now the gate is a tall hedge, obscuring part of the property from the road.
Before the gate was installed we found that we were being visited by groups of young men on motorcycles. They would park their bikes behind the hedge and gather to smoke marijuana. They used to do it closer to town but local residents complained and the police moved them on. They were just starting their session one afternoon when we arrived. Adriano told them he did not judge them on smoking dope, and had no wish to call the police, but they couldn’t do it there and they should go. They were very respectful and did. They didn’t show the same respect, however, to our caretaker on subsequent visits, and even cut the barbed wire fence he put across the gateway. To solve the problem, Adriano had the top part of the property, and in particular behind the hedge, fertilised with a mix of pig manure and ‘pulpa’, the residue of the coffee cherries after the beans have been separated out. The ‘marijuaneros’ disappeared immediately. As Adriano observed, we used the shit to get rid of the shit. It wasn’t just the dope smokers who felt the impact. Locals walking past were holding their noses but let’s face it, the country is the country. It can’t all be roses.
The ‘pulpa’ has a particularly strong aroma and we have plenty of it at the moment as we are well into the ‘cosecha’, the coffee harvest. The ‘beneficidero’ or processing plant is working all day, right through to about 3 am each morning, pulping the cherries and separating the beans, washing and part-fermenting them, and drying them. When enough has been bagged it is shipped to the Co-Op for assessment and sale.
We are growing good coffee, excellent coffee. This is due to the man in charge for the past two years, Adriano, who is far better than his predecessor. He is also more honest. This is particularly fortunate as the price is also much better than it was. It has been a long haul but at last we are seeing some better returns, for which we are truly thankful considering all the economic hardship so many are having to endure in these Covid-19 times.
I never fail to be in awe of what we have taken on. On Saturday we sold almost 8,000 kilos of coffee and paid 180 workers, all of who rely on us for their weekly wages to pay their rent and feed and clothe their families. The mayor has devoted the town stadium on Saturdays to paying workers, with police in attendance to supervise social distancing and discourage any attempts by banditos to steal payrolls, which inevitably comprise huge piles of notes because the coffee pickers need to be paid exactly in cash, as they have no change. We had so many workers to pay we had the stadium to ourselves.
This cosecha we have more coffee than ever, mainly because we now have more farms than ever.
I told you about our new farm El Clavel, bought in August. What I haven’t mentioned until now is our newer farm, San Antonio, bought in late September. It is on the road up to Risaralda, the town atop the mountain behind us, which is also the road to the state capital Manizales. The farm has jaw-dropping views across the valley towards the western chain of the Andes and down into the Valle de Risaralda. Even better it has superb coffee, which we are already picking.
Curiously, we bought San Antonio from the same man who owned Rancho Grande before us. He had bought Rancho Grande many years before, and added the pool and stables and many other features. He grew great coffee and had great parties. Rancho Grande was legendary in Anserma when Adriano was a boy.
The owner, who was a doctor, was a rich man, and Rancho Grande was just one of his businesses. He also produced a lot of bananas elsewhere, and when coffee prices went down in the early 90’s and guerrilla activity went up, he abandoned Rancho Grande, giving it to Banco Santander who held the mortgage. Santander had it on their books, laying fallow, with just a caretaker, for eight years until we bought it in 2001.
It was fascinating to hear about the history of something we have owned for nearly 20 years. We knew of the good Doctor, and had smiled and nodded to each other on the occasions our paths crossed, but had never had the opportunity to hear his story in depth. For example, we knew that the FARC had kidnapped him and held him for some nine months. This was a couple of years after we had bought Rancho. It sounded horrendous but he told us that it was not so bad, as the FARC treated him with respect because he was a doctor and as a doctor he looked after their health. He would give them a list of the things he needed and they would duly produce them.
We heard these stories over a bottle of Johnny Walker Double Black, while his wife and Adriano drank herbal tea and negotiated terms and details. He seemed pleased that we were buying San Antonio. He respects Adriano as a serious and honourable man who is interested in growing good coffee and will carry on the care that he has invested in the farm over the years. I think he sees a bit of his younger self in Adriano.
San Antonio is about 9.5 hectares, similar to El Clavel, but unlike El Clavel it has a small, very nice house for the Patron, and a good beneficidero, which we can use as back up to Rancho Grande. We might need it.
Apart from expanding our productivity, and gaining a well situated and maintained property with magnificent views, acquiring San Antonio was a great way to celebrate Adriano and my anniversary, which happened on the 4th of October, marking 35 years since we met on the Piccadilly Line platform at Hammersmith Underground station in London in 1985.
It means that I have now spent half my life with Adriano, as it was in the middle of September that I turned 70.
How should I feel about achieving 70 years? Well, I don’t know, as I have never done it before. It doesn’t feel any different.
It reminds me of Pete Townshend a few years ago, shown a film of himself performing with The Who in 1967 and asked how he felt now looking at that. He replied, “Like an old fart, but at least I am not boring”.
I hope I can say the same.
Love from Adriano and me
Barry
