June 19 Part 2

June 19, 2009 Part 2

We drove to the outskirts of town, further than we had gone before, along the raod that leads to the city of Jinja (where the Nile starts). We entered what seemed to be a newly constructed compound/business park boasting an all glass front building complex. Not the kind of place one would expect the only major coffee roaster in town to be located. Few places had signs noting their placement and the glass is all heavily tinted due to how much sunlight there is here. We walked blindly into the roasting center to find ourselves in the administration part of the office boasting workers at four desks, only one of which had a computer. A high plywood wall separated the administration from the processing area which took up the rest of the high ceiling, loft-type space. There were few people at work for such a large undertaking, and in the back left corner fo the space was the only roaster. It was a large drum (maybe cast iron) lying on its side with a funnel to allow for the addition of coffee and then a door that allowed the roasted beans to spill into a cooling tray. The roasting took place through indirect heat so the fire had its own little container beneath the drum. The entire thing was painted this red color and looked as though it was mad in the 80’s. He did inform us that it was a German model because they were the best at making the drums.
There were two men doing the roasting and both sported white lab coats. They went through the roasting process with us explaining everything from the chemical reactions that occur, benefits of convection heating and cooling, and roasting times. It was an amazing experience. We gained a good understanding of how and why coffee pops while it is roasting and how to get the best out of a roast even when roasting your own at home. I was so impressed at the level of knowledge of this man and that he thoroughly explained everything without attempting to “dumb it down” at all. We stayed around long enough to see a full batch of coffee (20 kilos) from start to finish.
The next step on our safari was the national coffee research center. The drive out to the place took a good hour. When the paved road turned to gravel we were concerned and when that road ran out and we ended up on an all dirt road we were even more so. It made more sense now as to why we had to take a Land Cruiser to get there. We were even out past where plumbing or electricity was extended. I have to say it was a beautiful drive and the countryside is absolutely amazing. One of the coolest things I saw were brick makers. In the low lying areas next the road were groups of guys carving out pools into the clay to allow them to collect with water. They would combine the two by walking in the pits, mold the bricks by hand, lie them on the ground and cover them with dried palms to dry. Once they had enough they would construct roadside kilns to fire the bricks, some of which were up to two stories tall. It was a really amazing thing to see and something that I had really never thought about. As we drove through the country side most of the houses and buildings in the area were made out of these home made bricks. There were quite a few of these places and even some that had been abandoned for the time being. Not sure if I am just easily amused or if it really was that cool. I think it was cool!
Regardless, we bounced along dirt roads for quite some time taking in the fragrant aroma of wild flowers, cooking fires, and the occasional dust storm from passing cars. There were a number of goats and cattle tied to trees in random spots along the road occupying the most lush grass patches. Kids were many, taking their long walks to the nearest town for school, often barefoot and staring in amazement….us white folk are nothing if not novel. We finally veered off onto an even more washed out and rugged dirt road lined with acres of perfectly spaced rows of lush coffee trees. After passing the run down and less than protecting compound gate, we finally reached the research center. The one and only road was lined with identical rectangle one story buildings like those one might find at camp. We went to wait inside the administration building as Joan gathered people to show us around. We were greeted by two rather young researchers, one being a plant pathologist and the other being a plant geneticist (if I remember correctly). After our usual introductions the researchers inquired into our interest in coffee and seemed very eager to discuss everything with us. We started at the beginning with the process of processing the seed, the top soil and sand mixture for planting, and then to the nurseries. Each nursery was a stage in the life cycle of the plant or, in other words, they move to a new nursery every time they needed to be transplanted until they were ready to be incorporated into the garden. Nursery consisted of two tall walls opposite of each other and two half walls opposite of each other with no roof. The remainder of the structure was covered with a fine black mesh. For ideal conditions the coffee plants had to be started in shade with high humidity. Our introduction to the nursery also included the major things that they were researching. The three major conditions they are concerned with in Uganda are leaf spots, leaf rust, and leaf drop disease. We also learned of an insect that research will start on soon that bores into the tree itself and in doing so deposits a fungus that eats the tree from the inside out. Leaf spots were a disease based on fungus as well where the leaf shoed visible dark spots that would begin to radiate out in a yellow color and eventually killing the leaf. Leaf rust was a fungus that grew on the under side of the leaf and (you guessed it) resembled rust. It would then spread to the rest of the plant. Leaf drop disease, yet another fungus, started in the roots and would grow in the tree trunk essentially choking out the water source to the rest of the plant and thus causing the tree to loose the leaves starting at the top. This disease nearly wiped out the entire coffee business in Uganda and was revived through plants grown at this center. The final nursery we visited was the test nursery in which they tested different genetic types/variations of the two coffee types to attempt to find resistant strands. We also walked through a number of “mother gardens” where they grew starters for new plants as well as trials of genetic combinations of the two coffee types. While the splice worked well in terms of growth, the cup quality was extremely poor and therefore abandoned. After extensive genetic and chemical understanding of coffee, we learned the process of extracting palm oil (boiling and squeezing and refining of the fruit) and walked through the palm garden. We then toured the test gardens to see what the diseases looked like in the field and quickly strolled through the cocoa test area to see what cocoa looked like in the wild. Hint: It looks like the pods that dropped off the trees and turned into trolls in Earnest Scared Stupid. Since the place ran itself and was so isolated, the water was out and had yet to be fixed. This meant holding having to go to the bathroom even over the more rough terrain to our next destination, the farm.
Ands so we were off. We knew we were going to have lunch so we were in great anticipation to get there, plus the whole bathroom thing. As the roads became narrower and more rigid, the mountains higher, the valleys lower, houses fewer, and stares stronger, we began to wonder if Ugandans had ever seen Deliverance. We finally arrived though, a farm with crude but nice housing, lush vegetable gardens, large nursery, pavilion complete with a single table and four chairs, and a tire swing. The air was so fresh and cool and comfortable as it began to sprinkle. Ginger and Joan entertained themselves with the tire swing as I introduced myself and sat down at the table with our driver. The table and chairs were whicker-like in appearance but made from vines gown in the edges of the jungle on the farm. The table cloths consisted of banana leaves that had been seared by an open fire and were soft as silk.
As I awaited the serving of the food and everyone to gather round I decided to finally make it to the bathroom, bad idea. It was just an out house with a hole in the floor that had been concreted around to prevent erosion. It didn’t smell as bad as I had though, but there were plenty-o-bugs. Once I returned and washed my hands from the rain barrel, lunch was served. They informed us that they hope to get a stove that worked on propane on the farm soon, but as of right now it was still open fire cooking. Since this was the case, everything was cooked in banana leaves to protect the food from burning, keep all the juices inside, and provide moisture in the cooking process. They provide a nice presentation method as well. Lunch included: a roasted pumpkin filled with roasted potatoes, matoke (banana meal), cassava, sweet potatoes, greens, bitter tomatoes, fresh tilapia, beef stew, and then watermelon, papaya, sugar cane, bananas and mangos. We also had fresh pineapple juice and fresh picked and roasted coffee to drink. The juice ws served in a gourd with a banana leaf stopper. Everything was far beyond my expectations. My favorite were probably the bitter tomatoes which looked like small green peas but were very bitter. They are also used for a lot of herbal treatments for things like swelling and arthritis. After a lot of food and digestion over coffee and conversation, the farm tour began.
The farm lead was named Gerald and he was so grateful to share knowledge with us. He is an experimental farmer of sorts and wanted our opinion on some new vegetables he was trying to grow (zucchini, squash, and beets). We gave him some of our suggestions an showed him how to know when they were ripe. Who know that that knowledge would come in handy. Interestingly, they use a crude form of grafting to maximize their productivity and minimize the growth cycles of many of their plants. They take lemon plants, because of these growth facts, and cut them off right below the first set of leaves. They do the inverse to the plant that they are wanting to grow, say papaya. They put the bottom part of the lemon with the top of the papaya plant and hold it together with a tied piece of plastic. This lessons the growth time because lemon plants have such an intricate root system at an early stage and minimize the time before the first production of fruit. Ingenious! They use this process for most of their fruit bearing plants except coffee and pineapple. In the nursery we got to see the success of this process, and it works great. Also, in the nursery we got to see the seedlings through planting stage coffee. The dropping from the chicken poop is gathered each day and provides fertilizer for the initial growth stage from seed to seedling. It was amazing to hear how sustainable this farm was. In addition to the use of chicken droppings, the cow manure goes as fertilizer for the rest of the farm. Natural hay is used as feed for the cows which provide milk, donkeys for labor, chickens for eggs, and pigs, chickens, and cows for meat. We got to see heaps of fresh eggs which was amazing. He had also gained some guinea hens that he was “trying.” He also showed how they did coffee for themselves through both the natural methods and with the hand-crank huller (not easy). We visited the cows and donkeys and shared our idea of using manure for planters versus plastic polyethylene bags. The bags are being banned in the country and the only other method they have is banana leaves…which is extremely labor intensive.
As we stood on top of the hill overlooking the farm the view was breathtaking. You could see the pond that they irrigate from, derive personal water, and tilapia. You could see the pineapple fields, and even the mountains that boarder lake Victoria. From there we walked through the razor grass and strolled through the razor grass and then to the forest (aka jungle). Along the way Gerald stopped to point out the herbal medicine plants for fertility, luck, soap alternatives, and tooth brushes…it was fascinating. The trek through the razor grass and jungle were intimidating in the fact that it was so thick you couldn’t see your feet and you couldn’t see around you because how dense it was. As we burst through the jungle the field in front of us boasted huge banana trees and coffee as far as the eye could see. The jungle lining the field boasted some amazing red tailed monkeys that amazed Ginger and I but was second nature to everyone else. He (I assume, I couldn’t tell) was just chicken, staring back at us and then did a little show by jumping from tree to tree. It was another highlight of the tree. One corner of the coffee field was still a little bare and one of the gardeners had dug holes for us to plant our own coffee trees. We were given wooden signs to write down our name, country, and e-mail address. We planted our trees and drove the sign in next to them. Gerald says he will send us updates on how they do which is pretty cool. We continued our walk through the coffee field and ended up at one of the work hands houses where they brought water for us to wash up with and took a picture of all of us together.
Our ride home was rough and filled with exhaust from traffic but I still couldn’t help nodding off. We, of course, got stuck in traffic and spent a good thirty minutes at a stand still. When we got back to the coffee shop we got another round of free coffee before heading on our way. We knew the mile walk home was gonna be a long one but we really didn’t realize how long. We ended up stopping at a bar for a couple of beers before heading the rest of the way home. After getting in a good 14 hours after we left, we were both exhausted and ready to crash. We washed our feet and passed out. It was a great day and one that I will always remember.