Fair Trade Nicaragua
This week on Tuesday I took the tram up to High Camp at Squaw Valley for a hike with a class of second graders. My little girl was terrified on the ride up and down, but hiking around at 8200′ was a blast. They are studying rocks and every few minutes someone had a new find. It was great to see their excitement in learning and being outdoors.
Ready for Dinner.
Speaking of outdoors, how does your garden grow? August in Nevada County may well be the height of our local produce season: it seems like everything is ready to be harvested. It’s a good time of year to eat. I think tomatoes have been on our dinner table every night this week, and we’ve had two bountiful meals with friends where the fresh fruit off our trees was the table decoration.
Our coffee this week is our Fair Trade Organic Nicaragua. It comes from the Matagalpa department, in the northwest of Nicaragua. This is an area of craggy mountains, with coffee mostly grown by the indigenous population. Small farms dot the hillsides, and the coffee is certified SHG, or strictly high grown. This leads to lower yields, and higher quality.
You can read more about this fair trade cooperative here. By working under the fair trade umbrella, these farmers (many of whom are women) are paid more and their children have more schooling opportunities. This coffee is also certified organic, so the workers are not being exposed to pesticides.
Trace roasted this Nicaraguan light and in his words it’s “delicious.” It is nutty with chocolate tones as it cools. This is Labor Day weekend, and this would be a great bean to take with you if you’re traveling–especially if you’ll be outdoors on these cool fall mornings.
Enjoy your weekend, whatever you do. We’ll be open reduced hours on Labor Day, from 7 am to 3 pm, so come and visit if you’re in town. You can try a cup of this Nicaraguan on us with the code chocolate tones* this week. Trace and I are celebrating our 10th anniversary today, so we’ll drink to that. I’ll write you again in September–can you believe it? Cheers!
–Holly Fike
*Code good for one free 12 ounce cup of Fair Trade Nicaragua. Code expires on 9.04.14. Limit one free cup per customer please. Valid only at Carolines Coffee Roasters, 128 S. Auburn Street, Grass Valley, CA. Code/Offer has no cash value.