Boquete Coffee
  • HOME
  • BLOG
  • BUY OUR COFFEE
  • PLANTATION
  • COFFEE RESOURCES
  • ABOUT US
  • PRIVACY POLICY

Never mind the horse poo - where are all the people going?: Independence Day 28th November

11/28/2011

0 Comments

 
Today, is a big marching day in Boquete.  There are marching bands and marching school children and lots of fun.

It starts with the Priest thanking God, then just about every faction of government gets to thank each other and God (While we wait in the pouring rain, the wind and well it was a little chilly too).

Then the music kicks off, the marching bands get into gear and we get to dance around the streets in formation.  The dancing is the Foklore dancing of Panama, lots of swooshing twirling skirts.  We march up one street and down the next before filing past the dignatories and disbanding after shouting Viva Panama!

Buses come in from Panama all day long and just seem to join the parade.   It is now late at night and the town is full of marching bands and parties.   I am guessing they sleep on their buses.  Trying not to guess where they are going to the bathroom.   There are no public toilets in Boquete.  5,000 or so marchers without a bathroom and the Mayor is worried about horse shit?   Viva Panama.
0 Comments

Boquete too Posh for Horse Shit?

11/27/2011

0 Comments

 
Today, was the day for the holiday Cabalgata in Boquete.  This is a horse parade around the streets with some beer involved.

This morning, we got an email that the Mayor had cancelled due to aversion to horse droppings.   

Not to be deterred, a good 30 or so of us set off anyway.   After all this is a tradition that pre-dates the Mayor.  Frankly, Beatrice's tears and tantrum on hearing the 'cancellation' was about 10x more frightening than horse poo.  Mother decided to go regardless.

Mucho fun, must do it again next year. 



0 Comments

A lovely bouquet of orchids for a coffee farmer

11/25/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture
Look what came up from the far end of the farm this morning.   Beautiful green orchids native to Panama.  Just lovely.
0 Comments

For all these things we are Thankful

11/23/2011

0 Comments

 
1.  For family not here; And friends who are.  Friends who care, who have passion and work hard at their hobbies.  In this Valley, with every birthday...the harder you dance and play.  Not a 'dull' gene in the Valley.

2.  For sunglasses, sunscreen and hats to enjoy the tropical warmth bright light and fresh air;   For electric blankets on wet colder nights; And always for the de-humidifying machine.

3. For earth quakes that shake more like a big smoothy drink than a cocktail with ice cubes in it;  A volcano that does not blow; And my sturdy little house that is still standing with no cracks or holes to let the rain or insects in.

4.  For the coffee harvest; The red cherries safely out of the field being pulped; Even the ugly ones, we'll get them out too and they will pay bills; The oranges that pay for their own picking and put food on workers tables; The bananas that feed all life, life with eight, six, four, and two legs; Day and night time life; Life that flies and life that doesn't.

5. For seeing a Crake eating bananas on the bird table; The Agouti on the old river bank and the armadillo in the rocks and even the Coati Mundi on the driveway on its way back from eating the neighbors eggs.

Have a very happy Thanksgiving!



 
0 Comments

Coffee picking during the day; Playing with fruits at night

11/22/2011

0 Comments

 
Everything is ripening up at once.  We are madly picking coffee in the day time and at night....experimenting with the many fruits that are also ripening.    Without any experience with these ingredients it is more challenging.  There is also virtually no culinary tradition here in Panama.   There are fabulous ingredients and more recently some great cooks, but not much history of cooking.  So it is a blank slate, to be invented, and that is a lot of fun.

Last night, tree tomato or tamarillo sorbet.     It is beautiful and delicious.   I added oranges, of course also some lemon juice.

0 Comments

Time to stop digging: The orange trap

11/20/2011

0 Comments

 
In an orange hole of my own making - time to stop digging any deeper.

The precise moment I realized how deep the hole was, was last night.   Gazing into the crystalline byproduct of my orange candying.   The fact is it looked, felt and even smelt very like the sugar I have used in the past to wax my legs with.   We have been getting some nice bare leg weather this week.  I mulled over the idea of testing my crystalline gooey sugar on my shins for about 10 seconds.  Thankfully common sense prevailed.

You see the desire not to let the oranges drop and rot on the ground is very strong.    However, this instinct to preserve can easily escalate into some out of control behaviors.   A bit like the old lady who swallowed a fly and ended up eating a horse - she is dead, of course.  

The orange version of the slippery slope goes like this.   

Step 1: Start juicing and sending Beatrice to school with bottles of juice and drinking it yourself

Step 2: Buy sugar, boil and make cordials - keeps longer, easier than squeezing every morning

Step 3: Buy even more sugar and pectin (which you bring down in your suitcase with mucho trouble from customs who want to know more about the white powder) and make marmalade. 

Step 3.5: Marmalade is a venture you can spend a LONG time on. Get side tracked with different citrus combinations and mixing with coffee and other fruits.  This is a large topic, large enough to earn a PhD at least.  It extends into cake making - marmalade cakes are delicious - coffee and orange marmalade cake scores very high.

Step 4:  Buy still more sugar and pay the maid overtime to peel and chop skins for candying.........

Step 5: Don't go there - what to do with orange flavored syrup left over.  Climbing up Volcan Baru would not burn enough calories.  Tempting to use to wax legs with............but not tempting enough.

Repeat above steps for various citrus.........navel sweet oranges, mandarin oranges, mandarin lemons, persian lemons and so on...

Yes, it is time to stand back and take a deep breath.  My maid tells me she is bringing me some tree tomatoes and other goodies from the high mountain tomorrow to play with.

0 Comments

120 latas and counting.....better than we thought

11/18/2011

1 Comment

 
Picture
Here is the Indigenous picking team.   No easy smiles for photos or even when I  gave them hot scones and took them out into the coffee;  On the other hand they were folded over double laughing when they thought they were stuck in my car with the child locks.  Can not figure them out at all, and that is OK. 

33 latas today, 120 this week.  Two more days to go and about 150% of my estimation for this sweep of the farm.  That is great.  We are keeping this sweep, processing, drying, peeling in Boquete with the help of a well respected local coffee house and roasting ourselves. 
1 Comment

Lush: You have to admire the crema

11/17/2011

0 Comments

 
Not so much to say really,  just love the way it looks.   This was a pot of 50% mandarin lemon and 50% mandarin orange juice with cane sugar.   

And I would have to ask:  Is there a more velvety smooth texture? A richer softer color? A more divine combination of sweetness and acidity.  This is a pairing made in heaven.
Picture
0 Comments

Blood sweat and bees wax: One block of bees wax from a bucket of comb

11/16/2011

1 Comment

 
Do not recommend this process. Most of my kitchen is splattered in wax,  sticky honey got everywhere  and then there were near escapes from swarming angry bees.

That was the most surprising part.  The original bucket of comb contained a few dead bees, actually quite a few.   Not sure how that happened, I was not here at the time.  So, the waste product included some dead bees.  We put it in the trash and within 20 minutes had attracted a swarm of live bees who must have smelt their dead colleagues;  After dark, I ventured out and smoked off the swarming bees and put trash in the car to take up the drive next day.  In the morning, I put Beatrice in her car to go to school.  'Mum mum get me out of here the car is full of bees' - and so it was, a.   Drama all the way.  Too much drama for a block of wax.   Don't think I'll be doing this again in hurry.
1 Comment

26 latas from the smallest Lot today

11/15/2011

1 Comment

 
Lovely juicy red and yellow cherries from the top lot on the farm.   Working our way around to the other lots over next few days.  These are cherries we will keep to dry and process in Boquete and hopefully to roast as well.  Mainly Red Catuai with some Caturra and one bush of yellow Catuai, that must have been an accidental planting.
1 Comment
<<Previous
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Archives

    May 2013
    February 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011

    Follow this blog

    Categories

    All
    9/11
    Accounts
    African Bees
    Al Jazeera
    Amaryllis
    Ambassador
    Armadillo
    Baby Coffee
    Banana
    Bananas
    Banoffee Pie
    Beatles
    Bees
    Bees Wax
    Beneficio
    Best Of Panama
    Bird
    Birds
    Blackberries
    Blossom
    Blue-grey Tanager
    Body Language
    Boquete
    Boquete. Panama
    Bouquet
    Bouquete
    Britain
    Bugs
    Bus
    Bushes
    Butterfly
    Cabalgata
    Calcium Carbonate
    Carnival
    Cataui
    Catepillar
    Catepillars
    Catuai
    Caturra
    Cherries
    Chickens
    Christian
    Christmas
    Cock Fighting
    Coffee
    Coffee Farm
    Coffeegeek
    Coffee Pickers
    Coffee Picking
    Coffee Planting
    Coffee Processing
    Coffee Pruning
    Coffee Sorting
    Container Living
    Cooking
    Coral Snake
    Costa Rica
    Cowboy
    Culture
    Cupping
    Curd
    Dance
    David
    Dia De Campesino
    Drunk
    Drying Coffee
    Dry Process
    Dry Stone Walls
    Easter
    Egg Nog
    Ekees
    Estrella
    Eucalyptus
    Exercise Class
    Farm
    Farming
    Farming Maths
    Fathers Day
    Fertilizers
    Festivals
    Finca Lerida
    Fine Coffee
    Flowers
    Foklore
    Folk Dancing
    Food
    Frogs
    Fungicide
    Garden
    Gardenia
    Gardening
    Gardens
    Geisha
    Geisha Coffee
    Gourmet
    Graphic Design
    Graveyards
    Green Beans
    Guava
    Halloween
    Hand Creme
    Harvest
    Herbs
    Hibiscus
    Highland Wetlands
    Hiking
    Honey
    Horse
    Horses
    Horse Tack
    Humidity
    Hummingbird
    Hummingbirds
    Independence Day
    Indigenous
    Indigeous
    Kotowa
    Language
    Latin Dance
    Lemons
    Life In Boquete
    Limoncello
    Living In Boquete
    Living In Boquete Panama
    Logo
    Mandarin
    Mangosteen
    Marmalade
    Medicinal Herbs
    Milk
    Molasses
    Mondays
    Moon
    Moth
    Mountain Oak
    Mulberries
    Mulch
    National Holidays
    Nature
    New Year
    Ngobe
    November 28th Panama
    Orange
    Orange Juice
    Oranges
    Orchids
    Organic
    Organic Farming
    Organic Fungicide
    Packaging
    Palmira
    Panama
    Panama.
    Panama. Ngobe
    Panamanian Culture
    Paso
    Passion Fruit
    Payday
    Peaches
    People In Boquete
    Picking
    Pictures
    Pigs
    Planting
    Planting Coffee
    Plants
    Poinsettia
    Poisonous Snakes
    Politics
    Pony
    Postal Service
    Protestant
    Pulping Coffee
    Rains
    Rainy Season
    Re-cycling
    Rescue
    Rescue Horse
    Riding
    Roasting
    Rocks
    Rose
    Roses
    Rustic House
    Scap
    Shoes
    Shopping
    Snake
    Snakes
    Soil Testing
    Specialty Coffee Association Of Panama
    Spider
    Spiders
    Spring
    Starbucks
    Strawberries
    Sunday
    Sunday Reflection
    Sunset
    Tamarillo
    Tarantula
    Thanksgiving
    Tin House
    Tomatoes
    Torch Ginger
    Trade
    Tree Tomatoes
    Typica
    Uk
    Urraca
    Usa
    Uv
    Vacuum Packing
    Volcan Baru
    Volcano
    Voltage
    Wabi-Sabi
    Weather
    Welding
    Wellington Boots
    Wildlife
    Wood
    Workers Housing
    Yellow Cataui


    RSS Feed


    Website counter

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.