Community Development in Cameroon

Last summer I had the great pleasure to meet Matti Foncha, a true global citizen, who has an import business based in Atlanta, and has been helping farmers in his native Cameroon organize cooperatively to bring their crops to world markets. Matti's vision for equitable trading is summarized here.

At Kimberton Whole Foods, this coffee is our first experiment with Direct Purchase from coffee farmers. We're helping pre-finance the 2010 harvest, an approach that helps stabilize the local economy, and gives farmers a chance to help their famlies and each other during the growing season, now underway.

We learned about this opportunity from Mocha Joe's, a coffee roaster in Brattleboro, VT. They've sent their own folks over there to help train the farmers to grow, sort, and process for the specialty coffee market. They've also organized local roasters (like us!) around this project, and are helping create resources and funding for new processing mills in Cameroon, to be farmer-owned.

Cameroon is the only region in West Africa with the altitudes and soils to support high-grade Arabica beans. The coffee is very robust and interesting, a unique combination of buttery chocolate notes with an earthy spiciness. We're offering it as a French Roast.

I have exactly one 130# bag in stock from the 2009 harvest. I think I can get more if customers clamor. This is a great coffee, and the 2010 crop promises to be even better.

Grounds for Health Giftbox

We have a new online offering that benefits Grounds for Health. This post will be admitting a little hat trick we're performing for the sake these dear mothers and their children. They are our three best selling coffees, but two of them have arrived in disguise!

The first is our dedicated, year-round fundraiser, "El Amor de Madre." We wrote about that a few months ago. "La Esperanza de los Ninos" is actually "Hobo Ed's Morning Mojo," the coffee I have sold more of than any other offering. Cupping and origin notes for Mojo have also appeared on our blog. "Afya Ya Mataifa" (that's Swahili, for the work GFH is doing in Tanzania) is actually "Hobo Ed's Midnight Special," a light French Roast that has recently threatened to unseat Morning Mojo. It's our version of the classic Moka-Java, the first blend in the history of coffee, combining Ethiopian coffee (historically shipped from the port of Moka) with Sumatran, the first coffee propagated outside of Africa and Yemen, by the Dutch on the island of Java.

As you make your holiday purchases this year, please consider the benefit Grounds for Health brings to women in coffee growing countries. All of us can make a difference in the world - it's easier than we think.