We are picking coffee this week again.

Ama is our good friend’s son, Iraq and Afghanistan veteran. Becky is his wife, graduated from University of Puget Sound and got a degree of psychology. They both are unemployed now. Last round, they heard that we couldn’t find any coffee pickers to help,so they came to help for one whole week until we got a crew. They both are very mellow and seemed to enjoy their picking time. If we had more people who don’t mind doing some farm work, we wouldn’t have to rely on Mexican workers so much.

Finding a good crew to pick coffee is not easy for a small coffee farm,  like us. Farms with an extra house, can provide a place for coffee pickers, so their coffee is guaranteed to get picked  first. We have used a friend’s crew for over 10 years, they are very good pickers, clean and fast.

But last year was a different story. This friend didn’t have enough pickers and couldn’t take care his coffee, or our coffee. Terry and I tried our best to pick as much as we could. Our good friends, Jack and Sara came to help at off work time, and picking coffee was totally a new thing to them. Jack worked in office with numbers before he retired, Sara ran a coffee shop on the mainland. Their contribution showed a true friendship toward us, we accepted it with appreciation. Here, I’m talking about our friends again. How can I not to talk about it? After all, friends wave in our life all the time, they are part of our life story.

Coffee cherry are getting ripe, from red turned to purple, from purple to brown, some fell on the ground, some dried on the tree. Terry phoned this friend about coffee pickers, he said the picking crew would be here this Monday. But the crew showed up on Wed, picked two days, then have to go some place else.

Before the crew came, Becky, her mom and I started picking on Monday. Her mom is visiting her from Washington for two weeks, so she wants a little coffee picking experience. After two days picking, she is more appreciate the work we are doing.

Yesterday morning I was picking near the house, Terry yelled to me, he had to go to town because the pulper’s chain just about to break. So that set my mind to work, how can I take care all those problems alone when Terry is not here anymore? Well, I need Terry to show me how to maintain the machine, I will learn if I have a interest.

Around 2pm, the picking crew quit. We just had our lunch, finally we got a chance to sit down and rest. Half deck was covered with coffee, a wore out blue round barrow set upside down as a small table, radio, flashlight, lighter and Terry’s items lie on top. I was tired from picking alone, slow progress; Terry looked tired too.

We had a little talk, I put out my little worry about farming the land alone in future. Terry had a long breath, said:” well, time like this, you need to sit down and rest, think who is the best person to ask for help. Eventually something will happen.” Then he lift his eye lids, looked at me with that grin on his face, said:” I know you, you have now ideas about mechanic.”  I couldn’t help to laugh, because he is right, said:” I can learn, just necessary things to keep the machine running.”

We had 20 minutes rest, he went to pick up Sonny, and took him to a gathering at the beach for our friend Berny’s dad who past away last week. I stayed home and pulped 6 bags of coffee.

A day of our coffee harvesting season.