At the Sipi Falls, we had the chance to go on a coffee tour to a local farm, a very different experience to the well organised Lunji coffee farm we had visited in Mbeya, Tansania. Here we could make more or less our own coffee by hand, starting with planting a little seedling and then peeling, roasting and grinding the coffee, before it could be brewed.
We planted a new coffee plant between the bananas. In 3 years it will produce its first beans.
First the red peel has to be removed, then it will be dried and washed at the river. The dried beans again have a thin skin, which needs to be removed with the mortar.
It took a long time, until our guide was satisfied with our work. To separate the skins from the beans, we had to put everything on a tray and with throwing and blowing the skin was removed, a task in which our host was much more efficient.
She then prepared a fire, using a bamboo stick to blow air into the fire to get it going. In a pot, we now started to roast the beans.
When finally they were satisfied with the roasting, the beans were first put into a sieve the get rid of the last of the skin bits and then put into the mortar again.
They seemed content with the end product of our amateurish coffee production.
Our nice hosts gave us an insight into the process of producing your own coffee and we got a better impression of a village and its little farms, producing mostly for themselves.
Leaving Sipi and Mt. Elgon, we are one the way to visit somebody we met on the road, but first we will explore some rock art.
Prost!