January 2010 Coffee News

-New Year's Birthdays
-Coffee Harvest
-Great Harvest Bakery in Woodbury

New Year's Birthdays
When Guillermo talked with his mom on January 1st (also her 82nd birthday), there was a lot of news. The biggest was that one of our nieces had just had her first baby that very day -- the 4th great-grandson in the family (no girls yet). The family had also hired a marimba band to celebrate New Year's eve and was hanging and about to pummel the traditional birthday pinata (fun even if you are turning 82).

Coffee Harvest
In spite all of these festivities, Natalia also mentioned that they really hadn't wanted to leave the coffee farm for the city, because they were in the midst of picking and processing coffee. We'll share more about the coffee harvest below. Natalia and Maximo only have 2 workers helping them pick coffee this year, a far cry from the nearly 100 workers Guillermo remembers having in the 1980's when the coffee farm was at its peak.

Coffee blights and low coffee prices have taken their toll on the farm. I suppose, being in their 80's has also slowed his parents down a bit. Guillermo's brothers have taken over portions of the farm as their own (and need to hire about 15-20 workers this time of the year), but Maximo still keeps his hand in it. The coffee we buy is mostly from two brothers, Sabel and Avilio, and a brother-in-law, Alonzo who grows nearby. In total, our family has about 40 acres in coffee production.

Coffee farmers throughout Honduras are all busy harvesting coffee this time of year. The process is very labor intensive and involves hand picking the red coffee berries, hulling and washing them, spreading the coffee beans out to dry in the sun, bagging them and more. If you aren't familiar with the coffee harvest process, you might be interested in our coffee slideshow.

Great Harvest Bakery in Woodbury
Since we are in the midst of coffee harvest season, it seems most appropriate to announce that Great Harvest Bakery in Woodbury is now selling Velasquez Family Coffee in their lovely store. In you are in the area, check them out. They have fabulous bread too of course. Check out our complete list of distributors.