In search of coffee

We have had visitors staying with us for the last few weeks and have had fun exploring and showing them our favorite places.
Not far from us, up Doi Inthanon mountain a bit, there is a Karen village we like to visit.
It is a typical quiet dusty village filled with small gardens, pigs and dogs and where they also grow lots of coffee. After the required coffee tasting we bought a sack full of coffee beans to roast in our roaster.

In a walk around this village we discovered other things going on like this woman with her back strap loom weaving a length of colourful cloth to make up a typical top that the men and women wear here.

Drying in the hot sun we found a deck full of cabbage leaves and this tray full of colorful chili peppers that glowed like jewels.

A few days later we spent a couple of nights at Bodge and Yas.

The early morning light reflecting off the pond that the guest house looked over was pretty magical.

Another Karen village we like to visit has a large Royal agicultural project going on.
This is my favorite time of the year there because the mulberries are starting to ripen.

Fingers were covered in the red juice by the time we finished grazing on them, and washed them down with some thyme and rosemary tea.

The manager-MonTon and his wife Ohn live up there. Ohn does some lovely paintings of village life. We already have a number of her art pieces on our wall,but we couldn't resist buying a few more pieces.

As well as the herbs, cabbages, lettuce and fruit, they grow coffee in this village.
We bought a few more kilos.
Time to start roasting again and have a taste test.

After all this investigating we had worked up an appetite, so we started cooking with MonTon and Ohn, and created a feast.

The last few days a very strange weather pattern moved in bringing cold weather and rain. In Thailand we don't usually complain about the cold but we were up in the mountains and the high for the day was 9'C. We certainly weren't prepared for that!

Karen village

A few days ago we took a trip up to Sooks village in the mountains.
Sook is growing coffee and we were checking to see when we should harvest.

The coffee is doing well and should be ready to harvest soon.

The cabbages are also doing well up there.

Sook and her dad chat with us in the fields.

Meanwhile Sooks mum prepares some wood for the fire.
The mornings get pretty chilly up there these days.

Poinsettias aka the Christmas flower are used for hedge rows on the slopes. It provides great slashes of colour that is appropriate for the season.

Coffee harvest

As I have mentioned before we are getting into the coffee business. For the full coffee story click here.
This month we have started harvesting. It certainly is a different experience to grow things on a commercial level as apposed to growing for our own use.
Miss a harvest for the table because of weather or not paying attention, it's not such a biggie. But growing something to sell, you better pay attention.
We have taken our coffee plants to this point.

 

Then a few months ago they were producing these.

 

Then 2 weeks ago the coffee cherries looked like this and the harvest began.
The pulp has been removed from the coffee cherries and the resulting beans are being dried in the sun. The harvest was up in the mountains, but for the last few weeks there has been a lack of sun to dry the beans.

 

So last week we hauled the beans down to Chiangmai where there was a bit of sun and laid them on tarps in an empty field.

The sun has been shining since and today the beans were pronounced dry and were bagged ready for the next step.

 

 

At this point we can sell the dried beans either with or without the parchment that is still on them , or remove the parchment and start roasting the beans.

I think we'll be doing a combination of these things. We'll see how it all works out.

 

 

The harvest will continue over the next few months. Lots of work ahead of us.