June 2009 Coffee News

-Earth Shaking News
-Traveling to Honduras in June
-Farm in the City
-Coffee may actually be good for you?

Earth Shaking News
At 6:00 am Thursday morning when our clock radio went off, we were bolted awake a bit more forcefully than usual by the news that an earthquake had just hit Honduras. The good news is everyone in the Velasquez family down there is fine and as one headline announced, "Pudo haber sido peor"  -- "It could have been worse." But the 7.1 level quake did cause some impressive damage and a few deaths. The Thursday morning earthquake hit at 3:24 am local time. The epicentre was located between the island of Roatan and Guanaja on the Caribbean coast of Honduras, but the quake was felt throughout the country and as far north as Cancun, Mexico.

When Guillermo called his sister in Comayagua in the center of the country, she said that her husband and daughter had been woken up by the quake. (Her daughter got up to complain that someone was shaking her bed.) Up on the coffee farm, Guillermo's parents slept right through it. Thankfully causalties have been relatively light, with only 6 deaths and 17 injuries being reported. 57 homes were destroyed and damage was done to several public structures including the court house and soccer stadium in San Pedro Sula and the historic Cathedral in Comayagua.

One of the major bridges outside of San Pedro Sula collapsed -- a bridge that we often use when we visit. If you are curious, here is a link to short article with a photo of the collapsed bridge, and another (in Spanish) about the Comayagua Cathedral. If you are really curious, La Tribuna has links to video and a photo slide show as well as numerous news articles.

Traveling to Honduras in June
As we mentioned last month, we are heading to Honduras June 11-21 with a group of 17 people from our church Prospect Park United Methodist Church. We doubt the earthquake will affect our trip much, but it will be interesting to see if any of the hotels we are planning to stay at in San Pedro Sula had any damage or if there are any roads that were damaged that will require any detours. Traveling to Honduras is always a bit of an adventure anyway, so we are used to the unexpected. We just hope there won't be too much of it for our guests this time around! We'll let you know how the trip goes next month.

Farm in the City
We just had the opportunity to meet Susane Moua who has started a CSA farm right across the street from where our kids attend school at Adams Elementary in St. Paul. If you are interested in getting your vegetables right from the farmer contact her at 651-263-1167 or winner@joimail.com. She has several participation options available, including different sized food basket shares or pick-your-own.  Susane is a former California farmer with over 10 years of experience and a wonderful vision for transforming our food supply. You can't get more local than this.

Coffee may actually be good for you?
Cathy's mom sent us a link to an article in the Los Angeles Times that summerizes several research studies about the health effects of drinking coffee. We'd never go so far as to claim that coffee is a health food (although some mornings it sure feels essential), but the scientific concensus concludes it is a fairly low-risk beverage for most people. Read it for yourself here.