Home roasted coffee project
Have you heard about one of the latest Consumer Supported Agriculture programmes involving the production of coffee? If you are not familiar with the CSA programmes generally, this is an arrangement to help cut out the middlemen in the production of foodstuffs. Why are they troubling to do this? To ensure that the end-user (that’s you or me when we buy our food) gets fresh and top quality produce in a sustainable fashion. Straight from producer to our table!
Usually the CSA arrange for those in the programme to get a ‘just picked’ food produce delivery every 7 or 14 days. The foodstuffs which have been popular as part of the programme are fruits, vegetables, seafood and dairy produce.
So what are the CSA now involved in? The answer is simple – coffee. Coffee CSA has created an international cooperative of coffee farmers. Instead of the usual ‘coffee cycle,’ in which buyers purchase the beans from the farmers and then middlemen arrange for the beans to be roasted before they reach the consumer, Coffee CSA arranges for the beans to be roasted on the farms and sent straight for consumption.
Where are these local farming/bean-roasting communities? They are often family owned farms in places such as Peru, Ethiopia and Guatemala. The project also tries to personalise the process so that you have access to photos and details of the particular farm and can get online updates. In addition, the farms are organic and Fair Trade.