Water for every household

We stop climbing and catch our breath under some trees, sheltered from the blazing May sun. I turn to look down the dusty, steep path. A panorama of rolling blue-green mountains opens up below the coffee fields we’d just come through. Tiny buildings, far down in the valley, mark the town of La Unión, and further up the mountain, the village of La Cuesta, from where we’d started our hike.

Unión MicroFinanza staff, a water engineer, and a group from Lakeshore Fellowship Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, are following representatives from La Cuesta’s water committee to see the village’s water source: a stream that begins in a small forest, high on the mountain. We are going to test the quality and amount of water flowing from the source. Our shared hope is that this source will be able to continually feed into a water tank and provide consistent, running water to the homes in La Cuesta.

Clean water is an essential resource: it affects health, education and economic stability. When a person becomes sick with a water-borne illness, they must spend money on medicine that could otherwise have gone toward food or school supplies. A person who is ill loses work opportunities and cannot earn money to pay for medicine, further impacting their economic situation. A child who falls ill must be cared for, resulting in the same lost opportunities.

Members of Lakeshore Fellowship Church learn how
women in La Cuesta wash clothes.

Currently, more than 40 homes in the village get their water from narrow, rubber hoses, meant to hold electrical wires rather than water. Houses often share access to a single hose, further limiting resource availability. Hoses often break or disconnect from the source (the mountain stream), and the people we surveyed said they typically only have water for three days in a week.  Because there is no way to regulate the flow of water coming through these hoses, some houses receive all the water, and it is used up before it reaches the others.

This inconsistent, insufficient supply of water is what each family must use to bathe, wash dishes and clothes, flush waste, and water gardens. Think about all the ways you use water every day. Think about how your daily life would change if you didn’t have a dishwasher, wash machine, or flushing toilet. Then imagine that for four days out of a week, you had to use water that you’d collected ahead of time in plastic pails.

In the town of La Unión, in the valley below La Cuesta, large water tanks regulate water during the dry season. Water is turned off during the day to save it for use in the evening or following day. When water is off, families can use a reserve of water they collected in a pila – a large cement basin that serves as a washing station and place to store water. However, few families in La Cuesta have pilas. So, they must collect water in plastic bins or hike up a mountain to get water when it doesn’t come through the hose system.

La Cuesta's water committee meets with leaders in
San Carlos to learn about their water system.

La Cuesta’s water committee is made up of men and women from the community who will be involved in this improvement project on all levels. They are forming a plan for the community to provide the labor needed to build the tank and piping system, and they will write rules for community meetings and household use of the water. During Lakeshore’s time in La Unión, we joined the committee on an informational visit to San Carlos, where a water system was inaugurated last year. San Carlos community leaders explained their water regulations and gave advice to the newly-formed La Cuesta committee. As they learned about San Carlos’s water project, the members of La Cuesta radiated enthusiasm for how their own project would become a reality.

We’ve only just begun this project, and there is much work to be done by all the partners involved. But these first steps have sparked excitement on all sides to continue forward and establish access to this essential resource for each family in La Cuesta.

Harvest is over, but the learning continues

Coffee has been off the trees for barely a month and already we are thinking about next harvest. May and June is the time to prepare coffee fields, including pruning, stumping, fertilizing, and targeting plant diseases such as coffee leaf rust. Due to the leaf rust plague, it is particularly critical this year that coffee plants receive sufficient nutrition to fight the fungus and produce new leaves and fruit.

UMF field officers attend a Honduran

coffee institute training.

UMF's field officers have been receiving and giving trainings about coffee field recovery from leaf rust. They identify plants that have died – these must be taken out and new ones planted. If a plant is still living (even if it has no leaves), a farmer can prune or stump the plant and hope for new growth. If the plant has multiple trunks and some leaves remaining, cutting down just one of the trunks allows the plant to continue producing leaves and fruit at the same time as new growth occurs.

Gilberto shows a farmer how to cut back a 

coffee plant that was affected by leaf rust.

Martir, Pedro and Gilberto have been visiting coffee fields in La Unión to analyze plants and recommend what actions the farmer should take. The appropriate action is important, since each of these repairs comes with a different expectation as to when the tree will next bear fruit, and therefore become profitable for the farmer.

Even after coffee harvest and processing, UMF's beneficio continues to serve as a training center for farmers and visitors. Recently, third-grade students from La Unión's bilingual Abundant Life school spent a morning at the beneficio. They learned about how we process and dry coffee, how we collect and reuse water, and how we treat coffee wastewater and pulp (using microorganisms and red worms) to turn it from a pollutant into organic fertilizer. Below are photos from their visit:

Martir shows the students how the 

coffee de-pulping machine works.

The students see how microorganisms grow.

Gilberto shows the students how red worms break down coffee pulp into soil.

The students learn how to treat coffee wastewater to keep it from polluting waterways.

The coffee is picked – now what?

April in La Unión marks the end of the coffee harvest, as farmers gather the last coffee cherries from the trees. At UMF’s processing and training facility (beneficio), we’ve finished processing coffee for the season, and we’ve bought and received at the warehouse more than 67,000 lbs. of dried coffee. What happens to the coffee beans after they are processed and dried? How did we determine which coffees to buy? And what are the next steps for getting the delicious beans to roasters and coffee drinkers in the U.S.? This blog post will give an overview of the process of getting coffee from a farmer to a coffee cup.

Coffee sampling

Gilberto and Pedro take a coffee sample.

After farmers have processed and dried their coffee, they can request Unión MicroFinanza to take a sample. This is an important part of the process: from a 2-lb. sample, we determine the quality of a coffee, decide if we will offer to buy it, and determine what price we will offer. So, the sample must accurately represent that particular coffee.

To get this accuracy, a UMF field officer (Gilberto, Martir or Pedro) goes to the farmer’s house to personally take the sample. They use a hand-made tool to take a small sample from each sack of dried coffee, and they collect it in a gallon-sized sealable bag. That way, if even one sack contains damaged coffee, it will be apparent from the sample. The field officers code each sample and mark down identifying information for the farmer and field. Then, they bring the sample to the office for roasting preparation.

Sample preparation

Yoshi prepares a coffee sample for roasting.

Before we can roast a coffee sample, it must go through a process of sorting and removing of the parchment, or papery shell, that covers the bean. This is not a quick task: To take off the parchment, we pass the coffee through a simple bean mill (molino). The mill must be carefully adjusted so that the bean inside the parchment isn’t chipped or broken by the mill.

The beans now have had the papery shell removed, and are a green-blue color (thus it is referred to as green coffee at this stage). The next step is to sort (manually) the good beans from damaged beans. Once sorted, we can determine how much would be lost due to defects, and how much green coffee we would end up with to sell after the parchment is removed (during export preparation). If you’d like to read more about this process, visit this blog post

We take additional measurements, such as the humidity of the parchment and green coffee, to ensure that the coffee has been properly dried and prepared. Finally, the good green beans are sealed in an air-tight plastic bag and are ready for roasting.

Coffee roasting

In order to taste the coffee, it must be carefully roasted. We use a light roast for samples because it reveals the most flavors present in the coffee. All of the roasts must be consistent in time and temperature to ensure that any taste differences come from the coffee itself, and not because of how it was roasted.

UMF has a small roaster that we use for roasting the samples. Before, we would have to travel two hours away on a bus to get the samples roasted. By having a small roaster in La Unión, we are able to taste the samples and reply to farmers much sooner.

Cupping samples

Multiple cups are used to test taste consistency. 

The roasted coffee must sit for a minimum of 8 hours to allow the flavors to fully develop. After this comes the fun part. The coffee is ready to be “cupped” – a way to blind-taste-test coffees to determine their quality. UMF President Patrick Hughes cups the coffee samples to decide whether we will offer to buy the coffee. Each sample is rated on a 0-100 scale on a variety of different components including flavor, acidity, balance, and overall appeal of the coffee. We use this score, along with information we gathered during the sorting process, to calculate the price we offer the farmer.

Purchasing and Receiving

Yoshi weighs incoming coffee at the warehouse.

Once we have determined an offer price, we inform the farmer and they bring their coffee to our warehouse. We weigh the coffee, and the farmer and a UMF representative sign a purchase contract. We then pay the farmer directly (which means we know exactly how much the farmer was paid for their coffee). We pay a small amount in cash to help farmers pay any production costs, and pay the rest of the contract directly into their bank account to promote good savings habits.

Non-purchased Coffees

Although we would like to purchase coffee from every farmer we work with, we can only buy the best coffees since we are paying a premium price. UMF does not purchase coffee that receives a cupping score below 85. If a coffee is not purchased, we make sure to tell the farmer the reason for our decision – maybe they fermented the coffee too long, or did not sort out overripe beans – so that they can work to improve the quality in future harvests. Some farmers who are dedicated to producing quality coffee, but are just starting with new picking and processing techniques, have brought us samples for three years before meeting our quality standards.

Export Preparation and Export

Beneficio Santa Rosa

Now the coffee is ready to start its journey to the U.S. Its first stop after leaving La Unión is Beneficio Santa Rosa, which prepares coffees for export. Here, the parchment is removed (this time using machines instead of a hand mill) and the green coffee is sealed for export. From Santa Rosa, the coffee travels to Puerto Cortes on the northern coast of Honduras. A container ship will take the coffee by sea to the U.S., ultimately landing in New York. For the final leg of the journey, the coffee travels by train to Indiana, where it is stored in a warehouse and is ready for purchasing and roasting.

Roasting and packaging

This coffee has traveled from La Unión, Honduras, to Indiana, and from there it is distributed to coffee roasters, coffee shops, restaurants, churches and homes in the U.S. We sell a portion of the coffee in its green form to coffee roasters, and we also sell roasted coffee. (See this link to get some delivered to your house!) Coffee from this year’s harvest has already begun its journey to the U.S. – we can’t wait to share it with you!

Coffee leaf rust damages fields, production

In Honduras, simply mentioning roya is sure to spark conversation. Coffee leaf rust (roya in Spanish) has caused high stress this year for coffee farmers, exporters, governments, and agricultural engineers. Losses in coffee exports for Honduras were estimated to be $200 million and in La Unión, some farmers we surveyed have seen a decrease in their harvest by as much as 80 percent over last year.

While much research remains to be done, knowledge about the disease and prevention techniques is growing. The following shares some basic information about coffee leaf rust, its effect on coffee plants and production, and ways to try to combat the disease.

The yellow spots on this leaf are coffee leaf rust.

Coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix) is a fungus that affects the leaves of coffee plants, and consequently the production of coffee fruit. It appears as yellowish-brown spots on the leaves, and pulls energy and nutrients from the plant. Eventually, the leaves fall from the plant, which can no longer produce the nutrition needed to develop the fruit. The coffee cherries from a severely-affected plant eventually fall to the ground, often before fully ripening.

While many farmers have taken steps to control the disease, they can never completely eradicate it. Spores spread from farm to farm in a variety of ways - wind, animals, and people - making prevention difficult once a neighboring field has been afflicted. One way to prevent the airborne spread of the fungus is to surround a field with large-foliage plants to block the spores from reaching the coffee trees. Agricultural engineers also encourage farmers to fertilize and care for coffee plants, because healthy trees are better able to fight the disease than those missing vital nutrients. Preventative formulas can be applied to plants during early stages of the attack. If coffee leaf rust is not immediately treated, farmers may choose to fumigate a field with curative sprays, though these sprays are highly toxic when compared to the preventative formulas. Trees that have already been highly damaged by leaf rust can be cut down to the roots, and the new shoots cared for to try to prevent the fungus from returning.

New leaves grow on a plant that was stumped.

However, even if farmers are able to eradicate or control leaf rust on their fields, the trees will take at least a year to regrow leaves before they put energy into producing fruit. If a farmer decides to plant new trees or cut old trees to the roots, they will have to wait at least two years for the young trees to bear fruit.

Many farmers whose fields have been hit hard by leaf rust this year say they plan to plant new trees of the varietals Lempira and IHCAFE 90 (noventa) because these are still resistant to the disease. However, according to engineers, planting only these varietals comes with its own set of problems. First, there is no guarantee that the disease won’t mutate and begin affecting them as well; secondly, reducing the variety of plants also reduces variety in coffee flavors and could impact the quality of Honduran coffee; third, these varietals are not resistant to all diseases, and can still be subject to infirmities such as ojo de gallo or the insect broca (coffee berry borer). Lastly, planting only one or two varietals encourages the spread of diseases that affect those types.

Why is leaf rust so bad this year versus past years? Some scientists cite climate change as one factor in the increase of the disease, though others minimize its impact (this New York Times blog post gives more information on leaf rust and theories on the causes.) Certain temperature and rainfall conditions can cause the disease to thrive one year, while remaining in the background during other years. Because not much is known yet about the factors that promote growth of the fungus, it is difficult to suggest strategies to eradicate it, though farmers have found various techniques that help control the plague. Engineers and farmers say that healthy coffee plants (that have sufficient nutrients from rich soil) are better able to combat fungus attacks, as are plants that don’t produce as much coffee (plants that produce many cherries don’t have energy left to fight off the fungus).

Some coffee is still able to ripen on trees with leaf rust.

Along with other Central American countries, Honduras has declared an agricultural state of emergency because of coffee leaf rust. Honduran news organizations reported in January that 130 – 150 million lbs of coffee have already been lost from an estimated 100,000 manzanas (about 172,700 acres) of affected farms. Because of its two resistant varieties, Honduras’ exports are not expected to drop as dramatically as those of neighboring countries. However, Honduras’ economic status as one of the poorest countries in Central America means it will have fewer resources to dedicate to research and support for farmers. At Unión MicroFinanza, we are working with farmers and coffee organizations to learn more about the disease, how to prevent and fight it, and how to increase a quality coffee harvest on individual farms.

UMF’s Gilberto Barrientos, who has been attending trainings and learning about the disease, gives suggestions to farmers based on the state of their farm: for affected fields younger than 15 years, the farmer should wait for new leaves to grow on the plants and use prevention techniques to try to keep the leaf rust from returning. This would include fertilizing the plants to help them recuperate. If the number of rust-affected leaves exceeds 5-10 per plant, he recommends beginning preventative measures. For farms that are older than 15 years or that haven’t been managed in a way that cultivates healthy plants, he recommends cutting down the trees and replanting.

Honduras has two varietals that are not yet
affected by the coffee leaf rust.

These coffee trees have been damaged by leaf rust,
and they have lost most of their leaves.

Meeting the farmers, walking their farms

By Heather Farrell

The circle of plastic chairs filled the cool, dark living room. We sat holding bowls of sopa de gallina india, scooping up pieces of chicken, rice and beans with ground-corn tortillas. Gilberto, Patrick and I were with a group from Uncommon Grounds Coffee Roasters in Saugatuck, Mich., listening to Pastor Bernardo tell about his coffee, his family, and how his quality of life has improved since partnering with them and Unión MicroFinanza.

Bernardo and his sons.

Before we went out to see Bernardo’s coffee plants and processing equipment, the group shared photos of Michigan, the coffee shop and roaster, and the large photo of Bernardo with his coffee that hangs in the café. Bernardo laughed his unforgettable laugh: “I have more gray hairs now!”

Bernardo introduced his three youngest sons (his older children were at school) and said his daughter, Noemi, wanted to be there, but she was in classes at the bilingual school. Through customer tips that the baristas receive, Uncommon Grounds sponsors Noemi to attend the Vida Abundante bilingual school, where she is in second grade. Bernardo also shared about his life and how it has changed over the past several years. He described how he spent his entire adult life in debt, but that through working with UMF and Uncommon Grounds, he finished last year’s harvest not only without debt for the first time in his life, but also with money saved in a bank account. As we rose to leave for his field, Bernardo asked to pray for the group and the coffee shop, and he blessed the relationship they have established with the farmers whose coffee they buy.

Bernardo shows his processing
equipment and sorting techniques.

This is when we see the result of our work at Unión MicroFinanza – when coffee buyers can visit the home of the farmer who grew their coffee, meet their family, eat a meal and drink coffee with them, walk through their fields, and share stories about their lives. For these people from Uncommon Grounds, they will not only be able to tell customers who grew their coffee, they will also be able to describe from personal experience how paying a farmer a just price can make a difference for his family and his coffee.

They are also able to understand the obstacles the farmers must overcome in pursuing a higher quality of life. Before visiting Bernardo, we went to see Rigoberto Paz, whose coffee is also sold at Uncommon Grounds. We rode up into the mountains to his 1500-meter-high field, which received the double punch of damage from last year’s hailstorm and roya (coffee leaf rust), but still managed to produce a small harvest of amazing coffee. The group stood among the small, new plants that were growing from the roots of those damaged by the hail and cut down, and saw the stark difference between a coffee plant with roya and one without.

Returning to Rigo’s house, the group met his wife and one of his sons. His son, who is deaf, brought out his detailed drawings and we admired his immense talent for art. We gave Rigo a bag of coffee that he had grown and Uncommon Grounds had roasted and brought with them from the U.S., and we all gathered in his kitchen to brew and drink his coffee.

To round out a day visiting coffee farmers and their farms, the group returned to UMF’s beneficio to process more coffee (they also processed coffees the day before), and get their hands (and clothes) dirty with the process of taking a coffee from just-picked-cherry to dried bean. As the group returns to the U.S., we thank them for coming to La Unión to support coffee farmers and their families.

Uncommon Grounds visits Rigoberto Paz (center) and his field.

Beneficio processes first coffee of 2012-2013 harvest

A chilly rain fell on La Unión yesterday afternoon as we gathered under the newly-built beneficio roof, wearing sweaters and raincoats and jumping up and down, partly to stay warm and partly out of excitement. We looked up in anticipation at every truck that passed: we were waiting for Alfredo Ponce to arrive with this year's first coffee for processing at the beneficio.

Everything was in place, and daylight was beginning to slip away. Then, at 5:30, a truck carrying coffee came up the new road to the beneficio. Alfredo jumped out of the truck and greeted us with a smile. We unloaded the bags and found them full of gorgeous, ripe coffee. It was time for the first run of our new sorting equipment, system for moving coffee, and fermentation tanks.

An hour an a half later, we finished processing. Alfredo, who processed coffee at our beneficio last year as well, stayed to see the new sorting mechanisms and other changes we'd made for this year. Despite being tired and wet after processing, we were very happy that the new density and size-sorting mechanisms worked beautifully and that coffee flowed through the system much better than last year. We still have small changes to make, but we are excited to have started processing coffee and we are looking forward to the next few months!

Here are a few pictures from the afternoon:

Alfredo Ponce (in orange) helps unload coffee at the beneficio.

The coffee, mostly of the variety IHCAFE 90, waits to move to the de-pulping machine after the floating cherries were skimmed off and the water drained.

We removed floating coffee and sent it to another tank to be collected separately. 

Alfredo brought us 25 gallons (about 750 lbs.) of coffee cherries from his farm, which is at an altitude of about 1,475 meters.

Alfredo watches his coffee go through the de-pulping and size-sorting machine.

A locally-made sorting machine separates de-pulped coffee from damaged coffee.

Beneficio updates nearly complete

We are very excited about the improvements and additions we've made to our coffee beneficio this year, and soon we will be receiving coffee from this harvest for processing. Below are photos of the construction over the last few weeks.

Martir spreads cement on the outer walls of the biosand filter for the upper water tank. This will provide filtered water for use in fermenting, washing and sorting coffee.

Gilberto helps sort stones of various sizes to be used in the biosand filter, while the rest of the stones make up the road leading to the beneficio for trucks carrying coffee.

Our coffee processing center receives a roof of teja – clay tiles – to protect the tanks, coffee, and those who are working, from rain and direct sun. 

The fermentation tanks have gotten a beautiful – and practical – makeover with a new drainage system and tiles lining the tanks. The drainage system will facilitate washing of coffee, and the tiles are designed to improve coffee quality by being easy to clean and resistant to wear.

The receiving tanks have been redesigned to use less water during sorting and moving of coffee. These tanks, as well as the correteo, have been painted to protect them from sun damage and help keep them clean.

We have three solar dryers up, and one more on the way, to provide more space for drying coffee in a protected environment.

The vermiculture has received a drainage system to allow excess water to drain from the area where coffee pulp will be turned into organic fertilizer. The worms and the microorganisms are ready for coffee pulp!

Our new sorting equipment was custom built by a local coffee equipment maker. It will separate out improperly de-pulped coffee from the rest. One more piece of sorting equipment is still being built and we will add this to the process soon.