Just Coffee

The real BIO-FUEL, originally uploaded by justcoffee4u.

The second annual " BIKE THE BARNS" CSA tour was a raging success. 500-plus cyclists did the rural ride this year. Coffee for at least 400 was served at Drumlin farm at 7:30 am! I was up at 4:30 and brewing by 5am -- Made it to Cafe Soleil by 7am to pick up a 1000 pastries and hard boiled eggs --- All delivered to Drumlin by 7:33 --- they went thru 6 - 5 gallon cambro's of BIKE FUEL by 8:30 -- the rest of my day was spent in JC 1 picking up broken bikes or bikers (only one biker).

All in all a great day -- Check out the Pics --

Barista Training, originally uploaded by justcoffee4u.

Mark T Spark has officially moved on -- Last weekend we moved all of him... and his stuff to Lincoln NE .. --Click Here for some of the photos
-- He didn't have much time to relax once we got there ...Deb started his barista training as soon as we arrived -- "man who can catch fly with chopsticks will make good barista" wax on wax off --- He has a beautiful new family and it was as happy as it was sad to say goodbye -- I will miss him so much in the day to day around Madison. My family and I have eaten a good number of meals at his house we will miss that the most - supper at his house is always as good for the palate as it is for the soul. I guess its just a bit more of a drive now --- Mark Deb and Jonah -- we will see you soon!!!!

Here is a video diary of my recent trip to Venezuela.

The song in the clip is by a fellow named Luis Llaneton Sandoval. It is called "Las Cachos Suben y Bajan".

I'll post more stories and photos about VZ soon.

Posters are 11x17 and suitable for printing.... Made by Mr. Moon, graphic design ninja.

Please feel free to use them as you will for edu-ma-cational purposes. We will update in the near future to replace the graphic explaining "where the money goes" to reflect our 12oz. bags.
Thanks!

Gracias al excelente trabajo de Ellen Geisler, nos emociona poder presentarles parte de nuestro sitio de internet en español. Las páginas dedicadas a las cooperativas de productores que producen nuestro café ya están en español junto con las páginas que explican nuestra misión, valores, y estilo operativo. Les presentamos la lista de páginas ya disponibles en español.

The following is a transcription of my Haitian diary:

6Nov.

Disembarking the plane at Port-au-Prince I resist the urge--which I
always get exiting a plane down the stairs onto the tarmac--to wave
Jacki Onassis style. This airport is more like a greyhound bus
station with UN soldiers from Croatia, Brazil, Belize, and all over.
Next we race frantically through the traffic standing in the back of a
truck with all of the luggage. Racing, wind in my eyes, smells. The
electricity is out everywhere except where people have generators.
It's dark and we're going top speed, moving within a couple of inches
of the colourful bus on our right. There are no seats in the bus,
everyone stands, and pedal to the metal. Up dark roads the headlights
reveal canteens and snack shops open in the walls along this curving
street. Patrons standing around, but no electricity. No sidewalks
walls like a fortress line the streets, people, trucks swerve, honk.
This guest house is quite nice. They have a generator. And a pool.
And a gate. We honk about 30 times and someone finally opens up. They
have food. Beans and rice. They have two guards. The guards sit in
lawn chairs. They both have machine guns in their laps. Pointed
either direction. One of them has a clock radio, blinking 12:00,
trying to tune in a station. It is plugged into a 50' yellow extension
cord. Reminds me of Just Coffee before the fire marshal came by (the
extension cord, not the guns).

Here is an article on JC that was in the Madison Capital Times recently.

It was written by our friend Lynn Welch.

Check it out and see what you think. It is very cool to get the first feature article written about us in a Madison daily in our five year existence.

Thanks to everyone who have made our first five years a success.

Instead of purchasing another lame holiday gift for the person who has too much already, try something different this year. The Gardeners of Eden East Timor Seed Project is offering the following alternative: Purchase of one of the following kits for a family or community in Timor-Leste in the name of your friend, colleague, loved one or yourself. Your gift will directly assist to empower people across the globe to sustainably create their own system of food sovereignty.

In the community of Santa Anita de la Union in Guatemala there are fifteen young people who would like to attend high school in January. The school is located in a city fifteen miles down the hill from their village-- too far to walk..

In 2006 Just Coffee was asked to help the people of Santa Anita find a bus. We enlisted the help of students at Madison's East High School (MESFAP) who answered the call by raising over $1500 to help with the purchase, maintenance, and transport of a bus.

We thought we had found a bus last month when a generous donor offered a used vehicle, but upon inspection it was deemed to not be “road worthy” for the demands of Guatemalan driving.

If you have access to a good bus, or know someone who does, please contact us at info(AT)justcoffee(dot)net. If all works out well we would need to have it in Guatemala by January 1, 2008.

Do it for the kids!!!

Hand woven Timorese bags

I have just received 50 hand made Timorese bags woven from locally grown palm fiber. These bags were woven specially for Just Coffee by a group of fifteen women who call themselves Grupo Naroman. 'Naroman' means shining or shining light.

Grupo Naroman was formed in early 2007 after last year's crisis as a way to work together to find a market for their products. Previously the women weavers had been individually selling their products to people in a nearby community who were paying them a low price and then going on to resell the product in Dili or elsewhere.