Immersed in the World
Immersion is my favorite way to experience a new country. And you couldn’t wipe the smile from my face the days we spent at Miraflor Nature Reserve in Nicaragua. Not only were we deep in the heart of Nica countryside, we were also on a coffee farm.
Besides being a protected haven for flora and fauna, Miraflor hosts an agricultural cooperative where campesinos farm plots using organic methods. We stayed with Dona Corina Picado at her farm, La Posada Sonada.
We explored the coffee fields, learning this is what a coffee berry looks like:
And a coffee flower smells like an orange blossom.
And that coffee plants grow well under bananas.
We stumbled upon a few farmhands filling American-style backpacks with hand picked berries. Clearly, harvesting was a slow process. We watched this young man dump the day’s harvest into the machine to wash and sort the berries.
Here’s where the berries dried:
Dona Corina showed us her earthen oven, fueled by a wood fire, where the coffee is roasted. And this is how coffee is ground, outside the modern world:
It was here that I learned a cup of coffee should be drunken slowly, and savored.
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Really makes you appreciate — and want to savor — that morning cuppa joe.
this is wonderful – the photos make me so happy to see the WHOLE process. and yes, savor it!!
What a great experience to see the whole process with minimal use of technology. Now I appreciate my grind coffee even more.
I think I need to pour myself a cup now.
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Wow, what a cool experience that must have been! It’s one thing to just drink a cup in the morning, but to see the process from start to finish? Fantastic! Great photos
Lovely and informative post, Nicole! It makes you appreciate every sip
This is fascinating. I have been to a tea plantation but never coffee. Thanks for sharing.
Elizabeth, a tea plantation is on my travel to-do list! Which one did you visit & where?