Our weekend at the coffee estate

Saturday, October 10th (Happy Birthday Mom!)

We woke up early Saturday morning to play tennis. Even at 7am, it was already really hot. We had fun even though we were definitely lacking in the tennis skill department, and the two guys collecting balls for us probably found us quite amusing. It was a nice workout and a break from the games of Peacock vs. Dolphin and Uno we've been playing at Bethania. But still miss them!

After breakfast, we set off for the coffee estate with Vijayasarathi. It was a gorgeous drive, through the plains and up the mountains. Driving through all the smokey villages with homes made of woven dried coconut leaves filled with people, colors and of course, a number of happy looking cows. On our ascent we could see the planned, cultivated land of coconut trees and various crops. The mountain landscape turned quickly to steep rocky slopes covered in trees and bushes. We drove through a few isolated mountain towns, a lot different from bustling mountain Kodai. Little children ran along side our crowded Jeep waving and laughing at the foreigners. Little girls carrying bundles of firewood on their heads stopped to wave as they walked beside our Jeep.

We stopped off at Chandra's nephew's family's coffee estate on the way up, the Saint Mary Estate. It was very pretty, up the rocky, bumpy road, and we saw their new construction being built. All of the workers were building thick walls and mixing concrete by hand for a beautiful new home. Her nephew complained about the slow rate of construction in India saying it had taken 'nearly a month' to build this home from the ground up, in this isolated mountain plantation. We told him it seemed pretty fast to us, and he assured us it would be ready to live in in 10 days. Old women in saris mixed cement by hand in metal bowls (the kind we carry compost with at Bethania.) And we enjoyed a milk dessert and some water before jumping back into the bumpy jeep.

After the long drive filled with lots of honking, we arrived at the estate. We drove up the road surrounded on all sides by short coffee plants with small red or green fruit. We reached the small, two bedroom cottage where we're staying. Its very nice and quaint, with electricity only at night. Good thing we don't have to charge our phones since there's no reception up here anyway!

We walked for about an hour through the fields. We asked questions and learnt a lot about growing and harvesting the coffee fruit, and how it turns into the brown coffee beans that everyone knows. Vijayasarathi has been doing this for 45 years and is quite an expert in the coffee growing business. It was nice to be outside in the cool mountain air, soaking up the scenery and watching people hand pick the coffee fruit. Its very nice and peaceful up here, with a lot of time to read and play a few intense chess games.


October 11th and 12th

We've spent this weekend mostly walking and driving around the estate, and relaxing. We've learnt a lot about the history of the estate and about the coffee being grown. Vijayasarathy's grandfather bought the first plot, 7 acres of land, in 1940, when he was young right out of college. We saw some of the very old plots, some with trees up to 60 years old. The trees can yield the fruit for many decades, but produce less after 40 years. 75 percent of the estate is for growing Arabica beans. These are the more popular, better tasting, and more expensive variety. They need only one third of a day of sunlight, so tall trees are grown in the area to provide shade. The rest of the land grows Robusta beans, which are cheaper and used for instant coffee. They also don't need to be sprayed because they are not affected by rust. If left to their own, the coffee plants grow to full trees, so must be cut to keep a manageable size. We saw some large Robusta trees that were up to 60 years old. There used to be only horses to take people and goods up here and back to towns for selling, before cars. We're thinking that horses are much better suited to these rocky slopes than our Jeep is, as we bump along in the car.

Three main crops are grown on most estates up here: peppers, coffee, and mandarin oranges (which are all currently green). All grow well at this elevation. Guava and Jack fruit grow here, but aren't as good quality ("not good taste!") at this elevation (4000 ft). All of these other crops grow alongside the coffee plants. The mandarin orange trees and tall trees which pepper vines are put on provide the needed shade for the coffee. Different varieties of crops that ripen at different times are beneficial, as it would be impossible to harvest all of the coffee at one time. Robusta and Arabica plants need to be picked at different times, and all the fruit is hand-picked exactly when they are ripe.

They also grow cardamom on the estate. Vijayasarathy had us taste some of the seeds from the fresh fruit. It was very flavorful, but some were bitter inside. We watched the orange trees be sprayed to protect against certain leaf diseases too. "Shade lopping" was going on all over the estate. Without any kind of safety harness/ protection men climbed the tall trees surrounding the coffee beans and using machetes chopped off branches by hand. We were told stories of the "expert loppers" who jump through the air from one tree to the next without having to climb down to the ground in between. We also saw the building of machines where the coffee fruit are funneled through and pulped.

Later, we walked all the way up to the highest point of the estate. Looking around us, we could see much of the one hundred acre estate, and in the distance where Bethania lies beneath the foothills. It was quite beautiful, all the different colored trees and the layers of mountains against the blue sky.

We saw the detailed records and rain logs kept here. As the monsoons have failed this year, rain is desperately needed before the coffee to ripen next month. Most years, rain comes everyday in October and November.

Hope our new found coffee knowledge is useful for everyone :) or at least not insanely boring. It was fun and interesting being there at least, even with no electricity. Tomorrow evening we're back at Bethania.