Welcome to the September 2009 edition of Fair Grounds.  We're glad you've joined us and hope you enjoy the read.  Lots of coffee/fair trade happenings to tell you about this month but first, here's something we're excited to announce and we'd like to ask for your support:

Shine a Light

Café Campesino has been nominated for the chance to win $100,000 in grants and marketing support through a contest sponsored by American Express in partnership with NBC Universal.  The point of this exciting opportunity is to recognize small businesses that people find inspiring.  Read our nomination story here.

We are asking all of our dedicated supporters to help us win!  In order to move to the next round, we must receive a minimum of 50 endorsements BEFORE SEPTEMBER 13th.  (Although, we’d certainly love to have many more than that in order to get the judges attention.)

To endorse our story, all you have to do is this:

1. Go to  shinealight.ivillage.com
2. Take a moment to register for an account (Top right of page).
3. Once registered, click on the “Nominees” link (Under the big Shine a Light logo).
4. Search for Café Campesino in the search box.
5. Scroll down to find us (It’s in alphabetical order). Then click on view nominee profile.
6. If you find our story to be inspiring (as we hope you will), then click the Support This Story, Endorse Now button at the top left corner.

If we receive enough endorsements, we will advance to the next round.  This next round is the judging phase, where 3 finalists will be selected based on the following criteria: innovation, customer service, & community. Three of the judges for the round are Ellen Degeneres, Diane Von Furstenberg, & JJ Ramberg.

September 24th begins the voting phase.  At that time, registered users will be invited to vote on the three finalist Nominations by choosing the Nomination that best represents all three Judging Criteria.  Voting ends October 16th & a winner will be announced October 19th.

We ask you to please help us spread the word as we are very excited about this opportunity & time is of the essence!  Email us if you have any questions. [info@cafecampesino.com]

Now, on with the rest of this edition of Fair Grounds.  Cheers!

Bolivia Dark Roast – 10% off with code bolsept9

The September special coffee is from the group that Cooperative Coffees first purchased coffee from when we entered the Bolivian marketplace in 2006 - Associacion Integral de Productores Ecologicos de Pumiri (AIPEP).

This coffee has a sweet, smoky aroma and offers low acidity with full-bodied flavor. 

Enter code bolsept9 at checkout to save 10% on any size bag.

Click here to order.

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Mocha de Mexico

Try this tasty treat brought to us by our neighbors to the south. It’s a delicious way to spice up an everyday cup of coffee into something exotic!

Ingredients:

Freshly brewed Café Campesino Mexico Chiapas coffee
1 teaspoon chocolate syrup
½ teaspoon cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
1 teaspoon sugar
½ cup whipped cream

Directions:

Combine whipped cream, nutmeg, half of the cinnamon, and sugar. Set aside.

Put chocolate syrup and the other half of the cinnamon into a mug.

Pour hot coffee over chocolate syrup and cinnamon and stir to mix.

Top with whipped cream mixture. Enjoy.

Crimson Moon

thecrimsonmoon.com  

A brief history from our friends, customers, and longtime fair trade coffee supporters:

The tiny seed that was planted in October of 2001 and began a seven year long evolution from a single story art gallery into a 150-seat nationally known music venue was the mission statement “To Support, Promote & Reward Creativity & Community.” Housed in the historic c.1858 ‘Parker Nix Store-House,’ and decorated in funky folk art ‘The Moon’s ' welcoming atmosphere now feels like a fusion of ‘California coffee house’ and ‘New Orleans supper club’ - but it didn’t always! From an art gallery that gave away free coffee… to a full ‘coffee house’ serving only organic, shade grown, fairly traded coffee/tea and locally made baked goods… to a deli with a two page menu and live music two nights a week… to the building along the way of a brand new kitchen, four different stages and a c.1900 style ‘saloon’ upstairs… The Crimson Moon Café slowly morphed into a renowned restaurant that is also a rising star on the list of nationally known ‘listening venues.’ A four page feature article in Southern Living’s Feb. ’08 issue didn’t hurt a bit, but it was the proprietress’s dreams, drive, and dedication that fed and watered the tiny seed of 2001 that grew into a business that can now wear ‘The Southeast’s Most Intimate Listening Venue – Where the Creative Spirit Shines’ as it’s defining statement.

Ask any local about The Crimson Moon Cafe and they will often describe it as "the coolest, most happening place in North Georgia." Now featuring a six page menu, a full coffee house, live music four days a week, and a saloon with an awesome ‘over the square’ view, the same stage that hosts renowned acoustic artists from all over the world also showcases the best of local talent via weekly jam sessions or monthly Open Mics and Southern Songwriter Showcases. Ask any artist who’s shared their music from The Crimson Moon Cafe’s stage and they’ll most likely tell you that ‘The Moon’ is one of their most favorite places to perform in the entire United States. The proprietress’s dream became a dynamic reality – a place of ministry and community where the authentic creative spirit can truly ‘rise and shine!’

From Café Campesino:

If you find yourself in the Dahlonega, GA area, we encourage you to stop and hang a while with “The Moon”. Thanks Dana & crew.

FECAFEB – Bolivia

Founded in 1991 and made up of 30 farmer-cooperatives representing 8700 families, FECAFEB (Federacion de Caficultores Exportadores de Bolivia) is an independent national federation of the small coffee producers' organizations.

Over the years, FECAFEB and its member coops have developed in important ways including a widespread training program for administrative, leadership and quality control improvements offered to 470 cooperative leaders old and new; in creating a political space for the voice of small-scale coffee producers to be heard and amplified; and in the sale of 120 containers of coffee primarily into the Fair Trade, Organic and other specialty markets.  Holland, Germany, France, Belgium, New Zealand, and the USA are among the several countries to which FECAFEB currently exports.

Cooperative Coffees participated in an extensive tour of FECAFEB cooperatives in May 2006. Out of that impressive visit came Cooperative Coffees first contracts of Bolivian Fair Trade and organic coffee.

One of the producer groups we visited is the Associacion Integral de Productores Ecologicos de Pumiri (AIPEP), with whom we have booked our first lot of coffee. AIPEP currently has 32 founding members and 22 recently enlisted. The founding members have worked hard to construct impressive internal systems for excellent organic production and quality control, as well as solid mechanisms for assuring participation and administrative oversite by the members. AIPEP leaders say some 120 other farmers in the surrounding areas are watching their progress at securing markets, and have the potential to multiply their export capacity four-fold. AIPEP has been certified by IMO Control since 2002, but to date has not been able to export directly, nor be adequately compensated for their organic investment.

Café Campesino and Cooperative Coffees are proud to support these Bolivian coffee farmers by paying a fair price for their excellent coffee. We look forward to many more years of growth and partnership.

Buy Bolivia Dark Roast at 10% off any size bag 

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Farmer's Organic

farmersorganic.com

Recently, Tripp had the pleasure of meeting Greg Parrish and Chad Heard from Farmer’s Organic, the makers of a wonderful organic soil conditioner. They broke bread together and had good conversation about organics and farming. Tripp says it reminded him very much of sitting down with coffee farmers in their kitchens and sharing a meal as well as exchanging knowledge and desire to produce better crops and products. All in the search for a sustainable way of life.

Greg and Chad recently visited Café Campesino and here's a little of their company’s story:

Farmer's Organic, based in Newton, GA, is a small, family run operation with less than a dozen employees, many of which are cross-trained in several different areas, from raising the chickens that produce the manure all the way to bagging the conditioner for retail sale. Their focus is on creating a firm foundation with customers built on honesty, integrity, and friendship.

The concept of Farmer's Organic began years ago and the compost itself has been in the works for four years. It’s a mixture of cotton gin residuals and chicken manure and the 2009 season has been the first big push to get the product to market. Thanks to the good work of Chad and Greg, it is now available at nearly 100 “mom and pop” retailers as well as at our café. (Don’t worry, local coffee lovers – the compost is odor-free.)

A few highlights of their ‘good for the earth’ product (besides being odor-free!):

It's also free of weeds and harmful pathogens.

It is a slow release conditioner and works well with any plant one can imagine.

And it supplies your soil with a variety of macro and micro nutrients.

Basically, it builds up your soil rather than breaking it down like the harsh, chemically-derived fertilizers.

And for those of you who want to try a homeade, healthier version of Miracle Gro, here's a 'compost tea' recipe Greg shared with us the other day when he dropped off a several bags of their product:

Fill (or nearly fill) a five gallon bucket with water. Add 6 dry quarts of Farmer's Organic Premium Soil Conditioner and 1 ½ ounces of molasses. Stir and use. If you don't use it all right away, add a little more molasses every two to three days and stir.

Wow, that's easy. Thanks, Greg. Best to you and the Farmer's Organic family as you build your business. Kudos for bringing healthier options to the marketplace.

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Bienvenidos / Welcome Miguel

On August 18th, our Bill Harris traveled to Hartsfield Int’l Airport in Atlanta for a much-anticipated pickup. A friend from Guatemala, Miguel Tzoy Tum, manager of commercializatión for La Asociación Chajulense, had come for an extended 5 ½ week stay in Americus. It has been a treat to get to know him better and we hope Miguel has enjoyed his time here as much as we have. One event that we’d like to highlight is a two-day trip to Sweetwater Organic Coffee with Tripp. Nick Dunn, from Sweetwater, sums up a Q&A session during their brief time in Florida:

Gainesville received Miguel Tzoy Tum of La Asociación Chajulense in style last Thursday night at Pascal’s Coffee House in the Christian Study Center of Gainesville. Over 25 people crowded the center’s classroom, Sweetwater coffee drinks in hand, to hear the Café Campesino sponsored presentation by Miguel Tzoy Tum and Tripp Pomeroy. The evening began with Tripp, the co-owner of Café Campesino, explaining the nuts and bolts of the global coffee trade. He painted a broad-brush, multidisciplinary portrait of coffee, incorporating vocabulary words like coyote (an exploitative roving coffee buyer and Fair Trade undercutter), the mathematics of three-acre smallholder farmers and 40,000 pound containers, and more. The coffee-savvy and justice-oriented crowd at Pascal’s scribbled notes and banged away on laptops with each new drop of coffee knowledge, but they saved their keenest attention for the main attraction, Miguel.

As the commercialization director for the association, Miguel related the near-miraculous history of La Chajulense coffee, from 40 producers in 1992 to 1,600 today, representing fully a fifth of Chajul’s population, and shipping over 40 containers of coffee per year (that’s 1.6 million pounds!). Jaws dropped when Miguel revealed that a farmer can support his family on a mere seven acres of coffee, a spread painfully out of reach for many three-to-five acre smallholders. When asked what American coffee drinkers can do to help, the proud and resilient coffee farmer set his jaw and replied, “Don’t patronize us. No handouts. Simply respect us and our coffee, and support us in our own efforts to improve our coffee, our yields, and our lives.” If the incisive questions and friendly rapid-fire Spanish conversation are any indication, the conversation about crop-to-cup ethical coffee will continue in Gainesville, as will the enduring friendship between Gainesville’s coffee drinkers and Latin America’s coffee producers.

We want to give thanks to Bill for initiating and planning Miguel’s visit. Lots of home stays with friends and neighbors, lots of meals, lots of English lessons (Miguel’s #1 to-do while he is in the US is to learn more English. And what better place to do that than in Americus, GA! “¿Cómo se dice ‘Howdy, y’all’?”)

Following his stay in Americus, Miguel will travel with a Café Campesino and Cooperative Coffees crew to Austin, TX to join in our annual cooperative members meeting. The value of having a producer partner participate in our day-to-day happenings has been immense. We share stories and tasks; we learn similarities and differences; we all are benefiting from the cultural exchange. Thanks, Miguel. Gracias, amigo. You are welcome here anytime!

Café Campesino Presents…Movie Night - Join us Thursday, September 10 for a free screening of Beautiful Girls. Timothy Hutton and Uma Thurman head an all-star cast in this poignant drama that confronts the mens' struggles to connect with the women who affect their decisions, dreams, and desires. Keep an eye out for a young Natalie Portman in a role that is considered by many to be her best. The movie starts at 8pm. Doors open at 7:30.

CRS project in Nicaragua – Bill and Tripp are currently in Nicaragua as participating delegates in the ongoing and far reaching CRS CAFE Livelihoods project. This weeklong visit is business-centered as they are working to add structure and knowledge to the day-to-day activities required for the international trade of coffee.

Tea Class – On the morning of Saturday, September 19th, our friend, neighbor, and tea afficionado Jim Foglio will be demonstrating brewing techniques and flavor profiling for some of his favorite teas in the cafe. This free class begins at 9:30am. All are invited although space is limited. Please RSVP our cafe or office if you plan to attend.

Turkish coffee class – On the morning of Saturday, September 26th, Burt Carter, coffee buff and longtime customer, will lead a Turkish coffee class at the cafe to share and inform about the art and taste of Turkish coffee. This free class begins at 9:30am. All are invited although space is limited. Please RSVP our cafe or office if you plan to attend.

Rylander Theater – On Saturday, September 12th, the Golden Dragon Acrobats, a company of 21 Chinese acrobats, are returning by popular demand to the stage of the historic Rylander Theater in downtown Americus for two performances, a 2pm matinee and a 7pm evening show. Tickets available now at the box office and online at www.rylander.org.

Taste of Sumter – Thursday afternoon and evening, September 24th, brings another of our favorite tasty events. Taste of Sumter is a street festival that gives local businesses the chance to showcase their favorite foods and beverages to a hungry crowd. Thousands will attend. We hope to see you there.

Field of Greens [fieldofgreensgeorgia.org]– October 4th – We enjoyed last year's event so much, we're headed back to Whippoorwill Hollow Organic Farm in Walnut Grove, GA to serve some more fair trade, organic coffee and learn from the wealth of info that assembles for this event. (The food is pretty good too!) Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit Georgia’s local organic farming community and Slow Food Atlanta.

Return to Eden [return2eden.com]– A new marketing campaign by this natural foods store in Atlanta has resulted in full-on advertisement on a city MARTA bus. See below. Do you see our logo? We got bus-ted! Thanks, Return to Eden, for your efforts and for including us in them.

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.”

Charles R. Swindoll – American writer and clergyman