Our First Lesson in Farming and Sustainability

Today we started out our sustainable farming studies in Costa Rica. We began with a comprehensive study of the fruit grown in the area and what specific fruits were grown on a farm. The owner of the farm came out and gave us a demonstration of all of the fruits on the farm. According to the story the farm started out as a dairy farm with a total of 6 cows in the rainy season, May to November, and 3 in the dry season, because of a lack of pasture land to graze on. A rising cost of living caused him to expand into new things. He expanded into different fruits and currently entirely produces fruit. He then got into some interesting facts about growing the fruits.

We then left and went to the restaurant that was included with our tour. It was situated right next to this wonderful waterfall. 

We then jumped right back onto the bus and continued our tours for the day with our first coffee tour at Cafè Britt. Cafè Britt is a coffee roaster started in the 1985 to produce high quality coffee for the Costa Rican people. We started our tour by meeting Mario and Maria. We learned about the discovery of coffee in Eithopia. It was stolen to to the Americas in 1723 where it grew to reach Costa Rica in 1750.  After the Costa Ricans gained their independence in 1821 the newly formed government started a brand new program to give out both coffee plants and land to as many people as they could. They gave out free coffee plants to everyone in the country and included the land necessary to grow the plants. Then we learned about how the coffee beans were picked, sorted, dried in the sun, roasted and finally ground. Two of our group members, Jordan and Sean, volunteered to help out in some fun skits and smelled, mixed and slurped, the best way to fully aerate coffee,  their way to becoming a little more knowledgeable about coffee. 

Fun Facts

• Federico translated for us today with the owner of the fruit farm.
• Avocados grow best on hills where water constantly moves through the soil.
• Costa Rica has a strong Middle Class because of their free coffee plant program.
• Saudi Arabia was the first place to brew coffee as a drink.
• Italy made the first coffee shop.
• The best way to make coffee isn’t with boiling water but with water that has been boiled but also left to stop the actual bubbling.

By: Stephen Almagno and Ettore Carchia

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