La Finca

Ok, so when I said I wanted to go to la finca (the farm) I didn´t mean at 5.30am!

Woke this morning to the sound of tentative knocking and Tilcea asking me if I wanted to visit the farm today or en la mañana (next morning). I had asked to visit today so..

Read between the lines:
I leapt, enthusiastically from my bed, whirled around the room in an organised manner before presenting myself, clean and smartly dressed in the kitchen.

I ate my breakfast, Quakers Avena (porridge - yes, really) and we set off on the twenty minute drive to the farm. Really I kind of thought we´d take a nice little drive along the road to a collection of fields some way off. Actually we drove along a road, then we went up a mountain, then up some more, then down a bit, then put the jeep in 4wd before going up more then up a bit more along a rutted track. Very exciting.

We arrived at a small plateau high up in the mountains which was flanked by (and had descending from it) coffee bean trees. It was beautiful, and a little wild. 

Farm

Mountain

Humberto (father) offered to take us for a walk. I wasn´t quite sure why he set off with not one, but two machetes. well, if you´ve got two hands, why not? Humberto headed off towards a wall of growth through which he proceeded to hack a path. Aha! a walk without a path is more like a repeated pace up and down a small strip, no?

Non-computer hacking

Actually, there is so much rain here and it is so warm that things tend to grow like billy-o. The path was just incredibly overgrown and - strangely for me- so was the area planted with coffee trees. I kind of naively imagined a coffee plantation to be like a vineyard - all the plants in nice straight lines with clean ground in between - but it isn´t. Its higgledy piggledy and more than a bit confusing and then there are these huge trees everywhere, coffee likes sombre (shade - like sombrero), you see.

And every now and again we would happen across something beautiful, like this flower. I think its called Sylvestre.

Flower

 So on we hacked, walked, continued. Apparently this area is the land of puma and jaguar. Some wild pigs too but why should I worry? I am proceeded by a man who is efficiently wielding two machetes.

Humberto wondered where to hack next.

The explanation of the coffee beans was brilliant! Regular (SALT) had already told me that 50%-80% of coffee bushes in Panama had been affected by a fungus which was making the beans unfit for coffee. It causes blotches on the leaves and spoils the beans. Some farmers in Panama have had to start growing something else because the crop is no longer viable for them. Up here there has not been much evidence of the fungus, though Humberto found some today. This is a really hard life. The bushes are planted on a hillside which is not clear so to collect the beans you have to descend into what is effectively jungle (I am presuming with machete in hand). You collect the brown beans by hand, stick then in a sack on your back and climb back up the hill.

Beans!

Green beans are unripe - rojo (red) are maturing (if you squeeze a red bean from its pod into your mouth you get the most delicious sweet taste - spit out bean after).

Tilcea models beans. Refuses to model machete.

Once the beans have turned brown you pick them. Or you get some likely looking fellas to pick them off the bushes. Wages are $10 for a day´s labour. That´s probably a lot of beans for the farmer but while its a better wage than surrounding countries a pineapple costs $1.25 here and a kilo of rice $4, water is $1 a litre and petrol $1.20 per litre.

Humberto models mature beans.

Humberto is how I consider of an old fashioned farmer to be.  Respectful of the land and nature, fully understanding of the seasons and alert to any changes (less rain the last ten years or so) and knowledgeable. The best bit (for me) was that he does what my Grandfather (a famer) used to do. Clothes used to be Sunday best, then they became second best, then work clothes. My old Taid (Grandfather) used to go out in the fields dressed in a shirt, trousers and once-smart jacket; wellies and a piece of bailer twine round the waist completed the ensemble. Not for him any speacial gear, overalls or casual clothes. Humberto wore a shirt and jeans.

Once you have picked the beans it ain´t over. Oh no, you have to de-shell them - by hand - with what I can make out is a sort of gigantic pestle and mortar arrangement. Then you dry them. By the sun if you don´t have a huge oven....

Humberto the Younger models ready to drink beans.

 Neither did I realise, until two days ago, that I have been drinking homemade / grown coffee!!

We continued along the trail having a lovely time. Tilcea unearthed some flowers for her garden. I took loads of photos, Humberto checked the plants. All good. I didn´t realise it, but this is the land of the armadillo. I got really excited about this! we saw aome armadillo tracks, there wasn´t even an armadillo poo but the fact that I was able to walk where one had snuffled was enough for me!

Here been armadillo.

We went on a little further and Humberto pointed out that we were surrounded by clovers, all of which had four leaves, it obviously was my lucky day :-)

The only scary bit of the day was when I was nearly savaged by the wildlife. But Tilcea flapped her arms a bit and they ran away.

Savage mountain chickens

Then I went to school.