Day One at Bella Vista - Amazing!

What an amazing day one. I hope that you have all had the chance to follow Ward's tweets from throughout our day. We had the opportunity today to experience some of the workings of the Bella Vista farm and mill as well as participate first hand in some of the activities - including a "coffee picking competetion" to see how efficient we could pick perfect ripe red cherries without picking green cherries and without damaging the new buds that are the beginning of next year's harvest. In the time it took an experienced picker to fill his basket, many of us picked only 1/20th of a basket!

One of the highlights of today (and there were many), was listening to Orlando Mora, one of the highest regarded argronomists in the field, discuss the relationship between the farmer and his coffee trees. He spoke about how the farmer needed to know "her" (the tree), so that his management practices could complement the perfect combination of soil, climate, altitude, planting and pruning practices. He spoke passionately about ensuring that the farmer works in concert with nature to encourage the coffee tree to produce a perfect crop. He consistently spoke of the coffee tree as a vital, living organism that the farmer works his whole life to know, so that he can read her symptoms and understand her needs to enhance production. He spoke of planting other trees with coffee to provide much needed shade and nitogen to the soil to nourish the root system that regulates the health of the tree. He talked about the mother tree and her "children" - the seedlings that would be produced with strong genetic material to grow and thrive without chemical or unnatural interference. I hope that I can display even one percent of the passion he shared with us when I can tell you all the stories in person.

We are getting ready to head out for dinner. There is so much more knowledge to share from just our first day, and in future posts we will do our best to pass on what we have learned about the coffee farms, plant management, the plant life cycle, harvesting and processing our coffee, as well as our dedication to CAFE practices and ethically sourcing the absolute best coffee in the world.

The one take away for you this evening, is to know that the relationships and partnerships we have built here in Costa Rica (and I am sure all across origin) are with the best people who are enthusiastically dedicated to providing the absolute finest quality while ensuring we have a positive social, economic, and environmental impact in the areas from which we purchase our coffee...what we accomplish is unrivaled, and our competitors do not even come close to achieving what we are at origin. Everyone we met expressed their gratitude working with Starbucks, and we need to be grateful for all of the hard work they are putting into our coffee.

I am in process of learning how to get my pictures on to the laptop with an adapter here at the Communications Centre at our hotel, so pictures will be on their way!

Adios, Cindy Gange-Harris