What was I thinking....
.....starting a blog in the middle of coffee season?
It's a hot Saturday night here in coffee country, and I'm doing what every self-respecting farmgirl does on a night like tonight. Yep, pulping coffee.
Yes, all you people with your fancy dress-up clothes and dinners out, movie dates and theater tickets, think of me fondly as I sit here with coffee goop up to my neck and nothing but a million stars in the sky to entertain me.
Tonight is also payday for the pickers. We have an extended family of 5 living and working with us this season, plus two children. They are from Mexico, by way of the west coast. Visitors are fascinated by the Mexican subculture in Kona, but like any agricultural concern, life here would come to a screeching halt without them. And coffee is part of some workers' annual "route". For example, my crew will leave us right before Christmas to go back to Michoacan, Mexico. In the early spring, they will head to central California for strawberries. Early summer is citrus time, lemons and oranges. Late summer is apples. September, they head over here. They could stay and pick late-season apples in Washington, but they prefer the warmth of Hawaii. Who doesn't?
It wasn't always this way. But like all ag communities, the demographic has shifted. Kids leave the farm, and most local people want easier jobs than hard, sweaty, laborious coffee picking. Note I said easier, not better paying. Our pickers earn $0.45 per pound, and a good picker can hit up to 400 pounds per day. Do the math. Damn. I don't earn that much.
That brings up a topic for another day....the economics of coffee.
alohas!
It's a hot Saturday night here in coffee country, and I'm doing what every self-respecting farmgirl does on a night like tonight. Yep, pulping coffee.
Yes, all you people with your fancy dress-up clothes and dinners out, movie dates and theater tickets, think of me fondly as I sit here with coffee goop up to my neck and nothing but a million stars in the sky to entertain me.
Tonight is also payday for the pickers. We have an extended family of 5 living and working with us this season, plus two children. They are from Mexico, by way of the west coast. Visitors are fascinated by the Mexican subculture in Kona, but like any agricultural concern, life here would come to a screeching halt without them. And coffee is part of some workers' annual "route". For example, my crew will leave us right before Christmas to go back to Michoacan, Mexico. In the early spring, they will head to central California for strawberries. Early summer is citrus time, lemons and oranges. Late summer is apples. September, they head over here. They could stay and pick late-season apples in Washington, but they prefer the warmth of Hawaii. Who doesn't?
It wasn't always this way. But like all ag communities, the demographic has shifted. Kids leave the farm, and most local people want easier jobs than hard, sweaty, laborious coffee picking. Note I said easier, not better paying. Our pickers earn $0.45 per pound, and a good picker can hit up to 400 pounds per day. Do the math. Damn. I don't earn that much.
That brings up a topic for another day....the economics of coffee.
alohas!
2 Comments:
enjoyed your Blob posting.. My gal and I are coming over to Keauhou for Xmas. sheds lotsa light on the trials that a coffee farmer goes through.. sounds tough!
i paddle for Jericho Outrigger in Vancouver. looking forward to poke, coffee, paddling in paradise!
Hey Ross,
I paddle for Keoua in Honaunau. Drop by the farm and I'll give you and your gal a farm tour. We're at 105 mile marker on Highway 11. Can't miss the Lions Gate sign. Paddle on!
Suzanne
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