Coffee

In search of new coffee beans I find the Kabunyeria Farmers Cooperative Coffee Society on Google, also being located in the Nandi Hills just on the opposite slopes of the tea and being my initial reason for coming here from Eldoret. They have a clean and slim website with WhatsApp contact. On this Sunday’s late afternoon they are still happy to receive me after writing with Timothy, the CEO. Wahoo! I get a warm welcome from him, the 1st chairman, the treasurer and some other members who are involved in training of the participating 1800-2000 farmers. I am the first visiting tourist ever since and they seem to be very pleased to have me here! They give me a brief tour around the cooperative’s premises, showing the sorting station, the de-pulping machine, the washing basins and the nursery. The land with the installations was inherited by the community from Germans some 50 years ago.

As always I ask many questions. It is their 3rd berry processing machine which removes the pulp and most of the mucilage mechanically with brushes. The beans then go into the washing basins for just one day in order to make sure that everything is removed. In earlier times they had no mechanical mucilage removal and the beans had to be bathed and partly fermented in water for a longer time in order to separate the mucilage. Afterwards the beans are traditionally sun-dried. The pulp and all residuals are composed and turned into manure to be reused in coffee farming. They are FairTrade-certified and now encourage all their farmers to move into organic farming. The cooperative’s ambition is to become Kenya’s leading organic coffee society :D Unfortunately they do not have any roasted coffee beans for
me but solely green ones :’-( Here in Kenya generally nobody drinks coffee but just chai and in restaurants you get served poor instant coffee. At the moment the cooperative is producing around 8 full-size containers of coffee per year which is 330 sacks per container with 50 kg each but they thrive to increase their output. They sell most of it through the coffee auctions in Nairobi but are also involved in direct trade. Additionally, they run a small dairy with milk cooling facilities in order to encourage farmers to bring their milk which is then sold into the lowlands. Slightly regulated husbandry will generate additional income and the animals' droppings can be used as manure for ... coffee plants :-)

As the evening approaches I am allowed to spend the night here on their premises being parked just next to the coffee store and enjoying natural forest sounds. On the next morning I get the opportunity to participate in the second day of a seminar on organic farming which is held by the Coffee Research Institute of Kenya. Yeehaaaw!! The people are so very friendly and welcoming, I am deeply touched. The seminar’s participants are half girls and half guys and I am delighted to see many people in my age and even younger. They are all farmers from the surrounding hills. The teacher switches from Kiswahili to English just because of me, hahaha. We learn about many different aspects of coffee planting: the correct land clearing, the soil treatment, hole preparation, planting distance characteristics for each chosen coffee variety (e.g. Ruiru 11, Batian), about the right planting season and the consequences of missing it. Highly interesting and much more sophisticated than I imagined! We also talk about how to prevent contamination from neighbouring farmers in regard of organic principles by installing plant barriers (Tithonia, Grivelia) and digging trenches. I ask a few challenging questions in order to make sure that I have the same understanding of “organic farming” as they. I report my experiences from visiting an organic coffee farm in Salento, Colombia, which leads to a discussion on inter-crops like banana, beans and other leguminous plants. Unfortunately they don't grow cocoa here. The teacher gives examples of organic manure, that it could come from composted tissue or from free-grazing animals. Manure from 0-grazing/commercially grown animals is completely banned by their organic principles because it will most probably be contaminated with evil chemicals which we do not want in our precious coffee beans. "Are we together?" After chai break practices on canopy management are taught outside and at around 1400 we have lunch. Tomorrow they will go into the fields for a hands-on session but I leave now at around 1600 because tomorrow (on 2nd) I will have to cross the border to Uganda in order to avoid problems with my car papers. Of all this I did not plan much and things just happened. They told me that now I have a second home here and I should bring my family and friends. How beautiful and delightful!Read more