Our gardener started this morning with a long apology for any possible offense.  It was quite difficult for me to understand what he was saying apart from 'disculpe'.   

There was no need to apologize, I love my stone heart shaped rose garden on the coffee farm. Let me say, I am not offended in the least.   I, particularly  like the plans to fill it with the dark red rose Black Prince and also the large red rose Madame and throw in some pink ones as well.  I was only teasing yesterday when I said it looked a bit like the sign for a Push or Brothel, of which there are many in these parts.   Gardens should have humor and stories to tell. 

Our farm has many rocks.  Some were hurtled over here by the volcano and some came with the river.  As the saying goes - When you have lemons; make lemonade.  We have rocks and we are making them into raised beds and making a large rose garden.

The stone heart is the brainchild of our gardener.  He has used one of the very big boulders that was hurtled over here by the volcano and found its resting place in my garden as the top of the heart.  The rest of the raised bed is river rock cleared before we plant new coffee.  It will  hold about 40 roses and I think will end up being the centerpiece of the rose garden.  Can't wait to show my friends.

Another distracted day from coffee farming.  A real cowboy showed us his horses.  This used to be cowboy country.  Maybe it still is.    We descended into a neighboring valley to visit the cowboy and his horses on his ranch between two rivers.  It was hot, very hot. We saw lots of horses and rode a couple.  Nice horses.  All stallions all quarter horses, the cowboy horse.  Then we talked about them and drank maranon juice - the juice of the cashew nut fruit - very refreshing.

I think our host is the real deal.  There are lots of people, mostly men, around here who wear the clothes.   He wore the hat and checked shirt, blue jeans and a giant buckle  Some cowboys here have cows - he has cows (lots of them).  

This gentleman cowboy seemed authentic.  He had his fancy horses and his regular working horses that he is more willing to ride out into deadly snake territory.  Mostly though, he has the face and legs that indicate he has spent many thousands of hours in the saddle.  He knows horses.   He had some lovely horses.  

A nice Palomino took my fancy.  Unfortunately probably too old to geld.  The search continues.  As we drank mar anon juice, I made a note to self about potential cocktail combinations with this delicious extraction from the cashew fruit and pondered the bigger problem of macho culture and impact on horses.  Here there is a culture of studs.  Not so much focus on the mares.   I think this is a problem.

Today, all about honey.  The coffee has flowered and the bees made the honey and need more space in the hives.

The morning started early fumbling to get all the zippers done up on a bee suit in a hurry.  Mind and fingers have to be perfectly working together and if panic sets in the game is lost.  Anyone who is old enough to have done a speed typing test in the days before computers, bomb disposal experts and maybe surgeons  would understand this.  The rest of you will just have to guess how it feels.   

The bees were calmer than I had expected.   We were not chased like the last time I harvested from Africanized bees.  It was pretty easy.  Maybe the clouds and light rain helped a bit.  We took the comb from the hives and took it to the terrace a little away from where people might go.   

Some bees stick to it and others smell the honey and come to investigate.  It has to stay outside until dark.  Then all the investigating bees go home to the hive and I can take the honey without problems.  Well not entirely without problems, as it is now dark and I am trying to lift very heavy comb in the pitch black.

Now the house is full of honey.   I am drowning in honey.  Very good for preventing allergies which are rife here.   I must have over 100lbs of honey. Will know later.  It felt like 300lbs carrying up the bank from the hives.  Delicious, strong lively honey.  

Now, I simply have to stop eating honey sandwiches and get on with the packing.  Tomorrow very early  before it gets too warm and light I need to put the extra boxes and empty frames back on the hives all by myself.  It is not wise to work the smoker, carry the boxes and frames and install solo.  But tomorrow, I will try.   Next task, to find local bee suits without zippers so that our farm workers can help out.

Garage and depositos are jam packed with calcium carbonate for a major soil correction sweep over the next few days.   I am also sorting containers for a honey extraction day tomorrow.  I have help coming from David with big smokers and expertise in harvesting from these feisty Africanized bees.

There are some thorny problems to solve with both these tasks quite apart from the practicalities of not having any garage space or getting stung by bees.  They involve maths and physics and I am sitting down and trying to think it through.

Re. the calcium carbonate, I am not sure how the hell you ensure the right spread and that the whole lot gets equal application.  I do not want to leave it to chance as my workers are used to the standard 25 bags a hectare but my current application is more than that as the farm was not properly corrected for a few years.

Before retreating to 'mi casa' and letting them get on with filling the air with chalk,  I think I will help out with a little calculation about how much should be put on each square meter then do a demo and show them how much it is.

Re. the honey extraction with no centrifuge machine.   We could just use comb but then we take it away from the bees who actually need it to fill with the next lot of honey.  Or we could try to drip the honey out with out a centrifuge.  Not sure that will work.  Probably have to take some comb and be done with it.  Very tricky.

Although we are in the tropics, we are Northern Hemisphere and there are subtle signs of Spring.

The coffee farm is alive with the sound of bird song.  The birds have all upped their volume in the last few weeks.   It is that time of year.   In particular,  the clay colored thrush is filling the air with music.  It is a largish bird from the same family as the American Robin and it has a large repertoire and  singing its heart out all day long.

There are some trees that from a good distance look like cherry blossom.  They are a mass of pink blossom, the locals call them many different things.   The rains are starting.  For now, just soft rain in the afternoon.

Feeling a little mis-understood.   I do not expect it to be otherwise, I choose to be here and here I am.   Far too bashful to say these things face to face but on my blog....here goes for the world to read and laugh at:

First this is what I would like to say to the Panamanian ladies:  

-  Don't expect me to understand the social structure.  It is a stretch for me to understand how so many subtle differences could emerge in the space of 100 short years or less since this land mass was seething malaria swamp and you were all immigrants.  You are all survivors and that is the most remarkable thing to me and something to be very proud of.

-  It is not that I entirely don't care about my appearance.  I actually like how I look in loose clothes that cover my whitish purple legs,  lowish or no heels, my own nails and not so much make up.    Even if I don't like it, I have to hide my surface area from the sun or I would end up looking like a prune.

- Relax, I like men quite a bit and your men are very charming.    I am used to working with men and having men as friends.....I am not interested in your husbands.  Could not compete with you anyway, not nearly as accommodating.  

Which brings me to what I would like to say to Panamanian gentlemen.

-  Sex is OK.  Almost certainly, I am not as interested in it as you are.  I much prefer gardening, horses, coffee, good food as topics of conversation.   
  
- I am not sitting in 'mi casa' eating bon bons all day waiting for you to come and visit , do some work, inform me of your plans, or drop something off!

Sorry for the delay this week everyone.   Back sorting coffee for size and density.  I want dense medium sized beans and I want them all the same.   In other words, this is a quest for the most uniform batch of high density medium sized beans that I can get out of my coffee.  Getting a bit obsessive about it.  This is the second time I have put my coffee through different sorting machines.  

Thought I was ready last week.  Had already sorted once but my medium light roasts were not as even as I wanted.   My roasting guru told me that I could get a better result if my beans were re-sorted.  AGAIN.   

I love the way I am doing this coffee.  By involving folks from the cupping/roasting end in my farm there is no question I am getting a much better perspective of how to do things.

The beans had already been sorted once. Sometimes, when the machines are old the holes get bigger and they no longer work.  Certainly, I was there and saw it being done and the beans definitely went through the machine.  There were lots of people adjusting levers and watching the tubes....but apparently, not effective.  This coffee business is much more complex than it seems.

No matter, off again to smaller beneficio where there is lots of owner involvement in the process and the process is done right to re-sort some coffee.  We put the machines on a high European setting.  This is more particular than settings required for American roasts apparently.

There are two machines.  The first is a size sorter.  The second sorts by density.  The coffee that fails is still good coffee.  It ends up in premium roasts in the USA.  BUT it is not the best #1 grade.  I now have a super good sorted #1 grade and a sack or two of other stuff I will probably dark roast.  My dad likes his coffee very dark, so dark you can not really taste much other than the roast.

Now I am going to run with my uniform beans or at least as uniform as possible.  I also had my peaberries separated which will be fun to use.  Ready to roast over the weekend.

Soil testing is an essential part of the coffee farmers routine.  After the harvest we get the soil tested and correct for problems.  Getting the soil right is the foundation.  It sounds so logical and straight forward.  As in all things coffee farming it is always 10 x harder and  more expensive to do it right than you could possibly imagine.  Most people do not do it right.  Just for kicks, I'm trying.

About a month ago, my main worker was digging little holes all over the farm.  He dug in a zig zag pattern across each of the 3 farm lots.   Then mixed up the samples from all the holes in each lot to make a general sample.  He carefully labelled the samples and put them in clear plastic sacks for me to drive into town.

I then drove it 40KM into David to the soil testing company that sent it off to Costa Rica.  There are no labs in Panama.  Because everyone is testing their soil after the harvest, it took much longer than normal to get the results back.  In fact, I had to go back in to David yesterday to ask for them.  Magically, they arrived in my email by the time I got home.

I imagine, reading these analysis is somewhat like reading a profit and loss or a balance sheet if you have never done so before in your life.   It is not intuitive but if you have a big red negative you know there is a problem.   Well, even I could ascertain that an acidity value between 3-4 on one of the farms was extreme.  Normally, a PH around 5 is expected at the end of the harvest and you need to get it up to 5.5-6 quickly before planting and to help the plants get productive again.

What is one to do with a PH of 3.  Panic.  Out came the calculator.  Not mine, but the calculator of my trusted advisor.  Turns out I need about 30 tons of calcium compound.  I need it quick, before we start planting.  I am imagining us disappearing under a cloud of chalk for the next 3 weeks.

Sun setting behind the Volcano between the trees on the coffee farm.   

Strictly, it is not Spring here.  The locals call March the end of summer.  Rains start in April and May is renowned for down pours and heralds the beginning of Winter.

However,to anyone who has ever known true Spring.  That is, Spring in four season climate, this would be IT here in the sub-tropics.   This is the closest to April in England that Panama will ever get.

The rains are starting softly now and coffee is in full bloom.  There are fresh green shoots on the coffee trees and the air is full of the scent of the flowers.  A wonderful orange and floral scent that is filling the farm.

For me, I like it even more than seeing the cherries.  We have very good flowers this year.  Lots and strong large ones.  The organic fungicide worked very well, the new shoots are clean and shamrock green.  It is the most beautiful sight and full of promise for the harvest.