Honduras Don Lencho Coffee Grower Update
June 2020
This is our monthly update from one of our growers in Central America. Read about the start of the rainy season and how that keeps them busy caring for their coffee farms.
The rain has come! A new season has begun as thunderstorms pour out their bounty over the mountains. Typically, at the beginning of rainy season, we have beautiful, sunny mornings as the clouds build up to mid afternoon. Then comes the drenching rain and with it hail and heavy winds at times. Of course, rain is always unpredictable and some days we get a break. Other times, we get rain all day. All in all, we can expect several inches every week. So far this year, we have gotten more than our share!
Storms can be inspiring. Imagine standing on a hilltop and watching a thunderstorm progress in the distance as neighboring villages are enveloped by the gray curtain of water. A cool breeze caresses your brow and the smell of damp earth permeates the air. You shiver as a thunder bolt strikes and involuntarily duck your head a little as you wait for the inevitable boom that will echo again and again across the river valley. Ah… rainy season!
With the rain, work has picked up again. Farmers all over are scrambling to get crops planted and fertilized. Coffee also needs to be fertilized since the berries undergo the most growth this time of year. Where used to be blooms, tiny berries have appeared. In these first few weeks of rainy season, they will swell into finished size while the beans form more slowly the rest of the season.
Rigo starts the day throwing fertilizer at the base of each plant.
In past years it was common for farmers to bury the fertilizer with a sharp wedged tool.
Now farmers throw out the fertilizer and hope for a good rain.
A happy crew joke and laugh as each fertilizes his row.
