Where coffee comes from

This past week we visited an organic coffee farm, which was great learning experience! Before I came to Costa Rica, I really didn’t know how coffee was grown and processed, and now I know TONS! It’s a lot of work sometimes to be an organic farm, but I think it is definitely worth it. I decided that to describe it, it would be best to use pictures. So this will be a like a picture book blog :)

This isn't related to coffee, but this grows at the farm and we were able to try it. Although the part you are supposed to eat has a great likeness to frog eggs, it tastes actually pretty good. Different, but good

This is the farmer that owns this organic farm, he and his son run it together. Notice how there are coffee plants behind him, but also trees and other plants. They allow other things to grow. Getting a tour was much more like walking through a forest than walking through a farm field

Close-up on his machette...I just thought it was cool enough to merit a picture :) Can you tell i really want one? lol

Coffee "cherries", as they are called. These ones are unripe, the ripe ones are bright red. When we went it was still a bit early for harvesting coffee.

This is the machine they use to split the coffee beans from the cherry part. It comes down through the top and the cherry is sent to the right of the funnel and the beans fall into the basket on the left of the funnel. They use a bit of water in the process, but not nearly as much as conventional farmers. Those farmers use huge amounts, and used to just put the cherry pulps into the rivers, which wasn't good obviously

This is what a coffee bean looks like right out of the cherry. A lot different, right? It felt kinda slimy. It still needs to be dried and roasted before it becomes that tasty beverage that many people need to jump start their day :)

These are some of the drying racks that they use. When we were there, they were actually starting to build the ones they will use when the coffee harvest is in full swing. They need at least 12 of these to have space to dry all the beans that are coming in

So that is the process that is done at the farm. After they are dry enough, they are sent to be roasted at a nearby place. We got to try some of the coffee, and you know what, I actually liked it! It wasn't as bitter as usual coffee is. I don't think I will drink it regularly, but i could tell it was really good coffee. Yay organic!