April/May/June Newsletter -
 2013

   


The Alpaca Bean Coffee Company Registered Trademark


Just when you thought it was safe to read your emails again...The Bean Returns!  A 3 in 1 Special!

APRIL:

 

(A while back a good friend sent this to me, then I got it again, then while looking on the internet...well, you get the picture I hope...I must be meant to share this with you!)

 

Life is Like a Cup of Coffee

Spiritual Story by Unknown

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee. 

 

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.
  
Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups. 

 

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live. 

 

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. Savor the coffee, not the cups! The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. 

 

 

Now, that is some kind of smart...in my opinion, ol' unknown author should have put his/her name right out there on that piece of wisdom!  You know sometimes we just need to jump right in there and enjoy life for what it is...

 

This brings me to our coffee and the pleasure it is to have you all try it at the various shows...but you know...I have to admit, I do not like to serve our great coffee in styroform type cups.  First, they are not the best for the environment...but more importantly to me, they just do not measure up to holding a fine cup of joe.  Yep, I am just like the young pros visiting their ol' professor...a wee bit ashamed to admit this failing, but that is just the way I am. 

 

Another thing, since we are on this topic, when you are somewhere and someone is offering you a couple of "samples" so you can decide which you like the best...don't EVER say, "Well, which is the best?"  THAT is why you are offered samples...so YOU can determine which, if any, is the best for you!  Just reach out and go for the gusto!!!  Especially, when you are offered a good sampling of fine coffees! :o) 

 

While we are on this type of topic, let me share my new pet peeve, it is one that I have to overcome...you see.  It really tends to rub me a bit raw when we have to ask permission to offer 2 oz samples of our coffee for tasting, while all around us folks are sporting the newest coffee equipment known to man...AND offering 12 - 14 oz cups to anyone that comes near their setups!  They don't have to hide these fancy brewers for fear of being immediately ejected from the arena, they do not even think of this prospect...ah well no one ever said life was a bed of unthorny roses I reckon'. 

 

In reality, this mind wandering piece comes to you compliments of the IRS...you see I am almost finished with doing the taxes for both our companies and our personal account.  I have had the good fortune of drinking the finest coffee this side o Jittery Joes, and drinking it in fine, fine, The Alpaca Bean mugs.  But, never the less, the yearly final reports to the IRS tend to scramble the ol' one's gray cells...especially when I know I have to be finished VERY soon, cause we are shearing almost 90 alpacas on tax day!!!!  By the way, if you happen to be in the neighborhood on the 15th...and you have already gotten your Uncle Sam duty done...well, drop on by and we will teach you the art of being a "fiber chicken", or "rope man", or maybe even an alpaca 'rasler!  You never know when you might need those skill sets! 

 

 

 Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live. 

 

 Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. Savor the coffee, not the cups! The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly 

 

  

You see, I have only been concentrating on the cups of life here...I definitely need to refocus on the coffee...I need to savor the coffee...because you never know when that delicious coffee might just run out...savor the coffee so that you can make the best of everything that you encounter... 

 

MAY:

 

 Western Connecticut Shop Owner Employs Camels for Opening

May 23, 2013 10:16 am. 

 

To achieve a "grand and dramatic" opening, the owner of a coffee shop in Western Connecticut is hiring camels to stand outside with signs slung over them reading: "Get over the hump, grab a cup of coffee."

 

The marketing stunt is the brainchild of Angie's Coffee & More co-owner Angie Rimbach and her husband Lee, who has a friend at a local zoo that specializes in exotic animals, according to a report from Litchfield County's Register Citizen. Here's more from the Citizen on Angie's, which just opened in Torrington:

The shop is located in a lot next to a beauty salon and a liquor store. The space has housed cafes and eateries since the late 1970s, Rimbach said. The previous tenant was interested in selling burgers in addition to coffee, and offered Rimbach's husband a chance to purchase the property before a deal fell through. The tenant left in April, leaving the space open. Angie Rimbach was initially hesitant about the business.

"I've had a lot of second thoughts about doing this," Rimbach said, looking around her newly remodeled space. "This is so much different than what it was. It really wasn't nice in here at all."

 

 

June:

 

Coffee Rust: Your Tax Dollars at Work

by Michael Sheridan of CRS Coffeelands Blog

 

Three years ago during the 2010 SCAA Expo, I gave this presentation on hunger in the coffeelands. At that time, the issue did not have the kind of traction in the industry it does now. Many people in the audience were still struggling to reconcile the extraordinary success of "sustainable coffees" in the marketplace with chronic seasonal hunger at origin. I knew about the lean season because I had seen it first-hand as an international development professional who had lived and worked in coffee communities in Central America on and off since 1995. But I didn't ask people to take my word for it.

Instead I showed them fewsnet.net, a website all of them had paid for but none of them had ever visited, where this calendar marked the annual hunger season with the same kind of reliability as the annual rainy seasons.

FEWSNET, the Famine Early Warning System Network, is a project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded by your tax dollars. As the name indicates, it monitors hunger in countries that are chronically food-insecure or vulnerable to famine in order to avoid humanitarian catastrophes.

FEWSNET is one U.S. government-funded program that is playing a vital role in planning the response to the current coffee leaf rust crisis in Central America. But it is not the only one.

FEWSNET: Coffee Labor Migration Maps

coffee labor chart in Guatemala

 

The calendar I shared at SCAA back in 2010 didn't just chart the annual hunger season - it also showed how the annual coffee harvest generates "high demand for unskilled labor" between October and March. The annual coffee harvest is one of the most reliable sources of employment in the coffeelands of Central America. But thanks to this year's coffee leaf rust epidemic , there wasn't enough work to go around. Official statistics say that 441,000 people lost their jobs in the coffee sector this year.  If current projections for higher production losses next harvest are accurate, the job-loss figure will be much higher in 2014.

FEWSNET is working now to produce maps to show where seasonal labor for the harvest comes from. Why? So we will all know which communities will be at greatest risk of food crises next year if labor demand falls by 30-40 percent, as FEWSNET predicts.  These resources are still under development, but they already mark an exceptional contribution to understanding the labor dynamics in the coffeelands.

 

 Note: Ever think about the term, "Fair Trade"?  Well, this article in a blog on coffee helps to clarify the issue.  As you can see from the chart, there is a six month period where the coffee workers are without employment...kinda' like the migrant workers here in the U.S.A.  By paying a fair price to the coffee farms instead of corrupt governments or corporations, we are able to, in a small way, help relieve this "hunger season".

If you would like...and only if you would like...send The Alpaca Bean News to a friend...who knows...they may like it as well!!!  Thanks, and double thanks!
 
 
On a Personal Note:
APRIL:  


Well, here we are about to push that fateful button to send the first of three returns on their way to IRS Land...boy does that tell you where this piece is headed!?! :o)

Boy, what a time Jude and I have had this year!  So far, at some point in our adventures attending alpaca shows representing our farm and The Alpaca Bean Coffee Company...in 2013, it has snowed!  Yep, at the Carolina show we had a brief blizzard, at the Southern Select we got snow fluries each day of the event, and at the Rail Splitter in Springfield, IL, we had just gotten into our truck to head home when the white stuff fell again!  The MAPACA Jubilee is next and it is at the end of April...if it snows then...

The shows have been well attended this year, a good sign that the economy is, in fact, taking a good bounce.  That is good news for alpaca breeders and alpaca fiber farms...means products should start to move more rapidly, both off the shelf and out of the paddocks! 

 

MAY:

 

MAPACA has come and gone with NO SNOW...even though it could have snowed in the building! :o)

More importantly, Jude and I made it through and we look forward to the remainder of the summer, being here on the farm...roastin', plannin', and keepin' the 'pacas as cool as possible.  As usual, we are looking at a changing farm scene with less Huacaya and more Suri alpacas pronkin' around outside.  With plans being formed to become a true AgTourism venue, the potential for developing The Vineyards of Walnut Knoll, and (of course) continuing to develop and refine our delicious The Alpaca Bean Coffees...we are sure the summer will be interesting and full!  We do not know where this will lead us in the coming year(s), but we do know that it is in the hands of someone much, much bigger than both of us...we are following where this leads us and enjoying the journey greatly!!

 

June:

 

Watch out here comes the heat!  Take care of yourselves and stay out of the sun as much as possible.  Wake up early and shake the cobwebs out of your brain with a nice shower and a VERY GOOD MUG OF THE ALPACA BEAN COFFEE!  More on June in July!  Love you girls, guys, folks, pokes, dads, mums, aunts and uncles!!!  Bye for now and I will attempt to never have a three-in-one issue again! :o) 

 

Peace,

 

The Coffeeman 

 


 

 
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Coffee Lovers and Friends,  
 
Judy and I are really enjoying having the opportunity to provide the best possible coffee for your enjoyment.  We also hope you will be able to visit us soon to experience the pleasure of drinking an outstanding mug of our Alpaca Bean Coffee while watching the little ones pronking all over the place!
 
George Dick
The Alpaca Bean Coffee Company, LLC 
 
 
 
The Alpaca Bean Coffee Co., LLC
466 Stone Lane
Canon, Georgia 30520