Coffee Farm Tour (Part 2)

This is the second of three parts from my visit to a working coffee farm here in Colombia. Part 1 was about the tour of the coffee fields and today's post is about the coffee-processing and coffee-culture part of the tour.

After we were done walking through the fields and had picked some coffee cherries, we headed back to the processing facility to learn how the coffee goes from being "fresh fruit" to piping hot in your cup. Most of the processing steps that were demoed were the manual methods that were used in the past. The idea is that if you understand the old way, the newer, factory methods would make sense.

First up was the de-pulping process. Using a rough-stone basin and a smooth round rock, the outer husk is removed from the coffee cherry:

A "newer", hand-cranked method was shown next. The machine had a center spindle with notches punched out of it. When the crank is turned, the coffee bean is removed from the husk. It was a much quicker way of doing the job but still no comparison to today's factory machinery.

After the husk is removed, what's left is the raw coffee bean, which still has a slimy membrane surrounding it. The beans are transferred to a drying area that allows the slime to be removed very easily. I've seen coffee being dried on rooftops, on screens, (even) in the street, and on racks like the ones that are housed in the "building" on the left:

The racks are pulled out during the day for the coffee to dry and are put back under the roof if it starts to rain or if it needs to sit over night. This photo shows the beans that still have the dried (formerly-slimy) membrane on it:

The beans are removed from the racks when they are dry and the membrane is mechanically removed. From there, the beans can be stored in their "green" state for up to two years if they're kept in the right conditions. Our guide took the green coffee and demonstrated how coffee was roasted in the past using this hand-cranked machine:

She then gave everyone a lesson in the proper process to make a cup of coffee using what I call the "cowboy-coffee" method. Start with fresh water, good-quality coffee, stop heating the water just before it boils, add coffee grounds, let it sit for two minutes, filter coffee grounds, and serve in a preheated mug. Removing the heat before the water boils is important, I learned, because water at that temperature burns the coffee, resulting in a bad flavor. It's also important to use a preheated mug as a cold mug damages the flavor as well. Add that to the "learning-something-new-everyday" list.

After the coffee-processing tour, the coffee farm does some hands-on cultural activities including participating in an old-fashioned dance as well as dressing up in historical, or perhaps hysterical(?), Paisa clothing. Juan Valdez anyone?

Yes, that's a non-TSA approved machete! Silly, silly farm folks--giving me such a toy. Overall, the staff at the Recuca coffee farm did a fantastic job and I'd highly recommend a visit if you find yourself in the Zona Cafetera. Now, to go have some coffee...

Coffee Farm Tour (Part 1)

The highlight of my trip to the coffee area of Colombia was a day-long visit to a working coffee farm named Recuca. It was everything that I had hoped to experience at the Parque Nacional del Cafe but didn't. There are tons of photos and details for me to share about the trip so I'm breaking it into three parts.

Today's post is about the field tour, which was led by a Spanish-speaking employee dressed in "traditional" clothing. She walked us through one of the fields of coffee trees and stopped occasionally to point things out.

We learned about how the farm operates, diseases and pests that the farm needs to protect against, all about coffee growing, and lots of other details. There were also some displays with photos and charts that had even more information. This one is about what nutrients the trees need and how they are fertilized:

The tour was super detailed and interesting. I got to learn about the phases of coffee-tree growth including seeing trees that were only days old:

...along with these slightly older ones:

I even had the chance to dress like a coffee picker. The outfit that I wore was made out of old bags that have been assembled into a protective layer worn over regular clothes.

As you can see in the photo above, the two legs were only connected at the waist. They reminded me of the pants that toddlers in China wear during their potty-training period (this was taken in Beijing):

[Photo Removed]

(Yes, kids are potty trained without using diapers. The parents watch their kids for the tell-tale signs that the kid is about to go to the bathroom and they move them to a spot that's acceptable for them to do their business. Very green and 1.3 billion Chinese can't be wrong I guess.)

At the end of the field-tour portion of the visit, we got to try our hand at picking coffee berries. It wasn't coffee-picking season but they let us loose in one of the fields to see how we'd do.

The tour was very educational and fun. I learned a ton about coffee growing and really enjoyed myself. In my next post I'll write about coffee processing as well as the coffee-culture activities that we did after the tour.

Salento

I visited a bunch of different cities, towns, and pueblos in the Colombian coffee area but one stands out and I think deserves its own story. Salento is a pueblo of approximately 9,000 people located in the corner of the Quindio department. They've done a great job making the town look and feel nice by keeping it clean and painting many of the colonial-style buildings, like these in the main plaza, in bright colors:

The highlight of Salento is a nice (slightly-touristy-in-a-good-way) street that runs about four blocks or so. This is the end of the street near the plaza:

Salento has an interesting history in that its first residents were prisoners who were used to upgrade the road through the area during the early 1800s. The area where the town is located was on a key route between Bogota and the western areas of the country. Then-president Bolivar mandated that the road be better maintained and upgraded due to its importance. Prisoners were brought in to do the work and many of their families followed. Once the prisoners were done with their sentences they were each given a piece of land in the area.

Many of the town's buildings are very cool on the outside as well as on the inside. There's lots of detail work and the people in the town aren't afraid of using color. I took this photo of the interior of a pool hall both to show some of the details as well as for my friend Dave who's a crack pool player:

At the other end of the main street is a very nice lookout point. As a bonus during your climb up the five sets of steps, you get to read the Ten Commandments, each posted on its own tomb-stone-looking block:

The reward for your climb, other than your free refresher on the Big 10, is a great view of the town and the valley that runs below it.

I loved all the brightly-painted buildings. I could see that the people in the town are very proud of what they have as lots of the buildings are well maintained. Here's one of the residential blocks where you can see three different restored houses:

One interesting house that I saw was this one that's made almost entirely from bamboo. The floor joists were whole bamboo and you can easily see that the siding is too. I don't think it works particularly well to keep mosquitoes out but it's definitely green and looks cool.

Salento's a very nice town to visit. It's one of the few places in the area where I saw more than one or two non-Colombian tourists. The climate is almost perfect and the architecture and views are worth checking out. I can understand why the prisoners chose to stay and make their homes here.