Tech Week & Coffee Tours

During the week before I left to tech week, one of the families in the community and I made a papaya dessert. It was kind of like a mermalade with lots of sugar! It was really sweet but tasty.

 And then coffee tech week in Santa Fe, Panama near the mountains. It was so beautiful and it was so chilly out it felt like autumn in the northern part of the United States. I forgot that I was in Panama because it is usually hot and humid!

One of the farmers taught us how to start and care for a worm farm! Since he had so many, he gave us some worms to take home so that we can begin them in our sites and teach our community members too. This is one of best ways to give nutrients to coffee trees while using an organic fertilizer.

 This is worm tea, which catches all the nutrients from the water that runs through the soil.

 This week we learned the safest ways to prune coffee trees without harming them! We used a special saw that is curved and a one direction stroke to totally prune some of the trees.

 Pruning helps prevent diseases on the trees, such as ojo de gallo which is pictured here and then another type that turns the leaves black, similar to mal de hilachas.

 And I partially pruned an Arabica coffee tree with special shears.

 And it is our APCD!

 Here is a campo pilador that takes the cherry skin off of the coffee bean and the one below is the same but in the factory!

The next day was a tour of the factory. Here are a few solar dryers, baths to soak the cherries, and the processing plant to dry and package the coffee beans for sale!

 OMG the smell of coffee here was so good. This is the big toaster machine that made the whole building fragrant with the smell of fresh coffee!