Buy Local. I’d add Buy Informed. Asheville has a strong buy local campaign and I do what I can to support it. But I just got back from a two week trip to Guatemala that gave me another perspective on my purchasing power.
I visited three different farms and fincas (plantations) in and around Antigua, Guatemala. La Azotea is an organic coffee plantation. Valhalla is an organic macadamia nut farm. I also toured a poinsettia factory. And all are amazing.
Café Justo
I am a coffee drinker. I love it. But seeing it grow on the tree and pluck off a little red berry was a whole new experience. Squeeze the ripe berry and out pops the green coffee bean, wrapped in a clear, sweet jelly-like mess. These are arabica beans, like they grow all over Guatemala. Shade grown and harvested once a year by hand. They are picked, washed, processed, dried, and roasted all right there. I put my hand in a pile of green beans drying in the sun. I watched men shovel dried coffee bean husks they use for organic mulch. I smelled fresh coffee – roasted exactly 18 minutes to perfection. I bought several pounds of coffee right then and there.
From now on I don’t think I’ll ever purchase generic coffee again. And I don’t have the heart to pour out a half drunk cup either – because I think of the people that actually picked my coffee by hand. I will buy informed.
Flower Power
Seventy-five percent (75%) of all poinsettias sold in the US get their start in Guatemala. I toured a poinsettia plantation where rows of greenhouses are tucked in the valley between two volcanoes. It is powerful and beautiful. Agua towers one side, while Fuego steams on the other.
Two greenhouses are for propagation. Patricia, the propagation guru, gave us a tour. I have never seen anyone as proud of root shoots and plant starts as she was. She loves her job. The other 30 or so greenhouses are used to grow the poinsettias. Although no one on the Guatemala side of the business actually sees the poinsettias flower. They grow and export them before they flower. Businesses in the US buy the plants and grow them to the flowering point and sell them under the “Made in the USA” label. Nothing wrong with that, but I like knowing how it all got started.
Women and men from local villages walk, ride a bike, or carpool to the plantation. They dip their boots in water before going in and out of each greenhouse to wash off any potential contamination. They wear rubber gloves and hold plastic bags full of clippings and leaves, as they work methodically along the rows of plants. They look for any imperfection or infestation. They water and fertilize. Pinch and cut back. They tend hundreds of thousands of plants by hand.
Next Christmas when I buy a Freedom Red or Prestige poinsettia at Home Depot or Wal-Mart, I will be proud to know that I saw where they got their start. And I know all the work it took to make this little plant grow. I will buy informed.
The Miracle Nut
The Valhalla Organic Macadamia Nut farm is a little ways outside Antigua. I made this tour with a busload of other students from the PROBIGUA language school. There is no electricity on the farm. They gather the nuts after they fall naturally from the tree. The nuts are dried on racks – you know when they are ready when you shake them and you hear the nut rattle inside. The nuts are sorted by hand and then the shells are cracked open using a human-powered machine.
But what they were really selling at Valhalla were the health and beauty benefits of macadamias. I heard everything from they prevent cancer to erase wrinkles. A miracle nut!
I thought macadamias just grew in Hawaii. Once again, I learned something new. I connected the people and the plants. I don’t regularly buy macadamia nuts, but the next time I do, I will buy informed.
