Although I'm here to look at the experience of fair trade coffee growers, I've spent more time in the milpa than in the cafetal (coffee plot). I did have a chance to visit the experimental shade plot in one of the communities this past week though, and the berries are just starting to show.
This plot had a number of fruit trees providing shade, so we munched on green peaches while wandering around. The leaf litter cover in the cafetal is incredible and the soil was quite rich in this particular plot. Adjacent to a milpa, the divide between the two plots is almost non-existent.
I've been popping in and out of the communities, there's a big party tonight in honor of Zapata (this is the anniversary of his assassination)...no invite for me, so I'm back in town for the night and I'm heading out to another community for the next few days that has a bee/honey operation and while I'm there I will be trying to track down the coffee co-op leaders/promoters.
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