Month: June 2012

My top 5 summer reads

Books are important to our family. So important that the small amount of air freight we brought to Burundi contained mostly books. Now that we live in Burundi, books feel like an absolute luxury. We have guesstimated that the nearest bookstore is probably at least a 5 hour drive and one border post away, in Kigali. Although… we’re not 100% sure there is one there as we have yet to explore Kigali. So, while our options are limited in the bookstore realm, it does make our book purchases more deliberate. Books are bulky and take up lots of weight and space in suitcases, so all book purchases in our family have to be carefully planned and discussed. I think this makes us appreciate a good book more. We smell and hold and caress a new book with absolute appreciation before we crack it open for the first time.

It’s summer in some places of the world and winter (Hi South Africa and Australia!) in others. Both seasons are notoriously good reading seasons. In winter you can read while snuggling by your fire and in the summer you can read on the beach and hope your kids don’t float away while you snatch a few pages. This is my non-fiction “life altering reads” list for those of you looking to pick up a good book this summer/winter. I am a lover of all things fiction, but these non-fiction books have a special place in my heart. They are books that have altered my perspective on life in one way or another. Books like that should not be kept a secret, so I am sharing. As my five year old says, “Sharing is caring, Mom.” These might not be your typical paperback easy summer reads (I do love those too!), but they are books that will leave something good in their wake.

So, here’s my list, in no particular order…

The Art of Simple Food

by Alice Waters

Call me crazy, but I read cookbooks like “real books.” They hang out on my nightstand with the rest of the crowd because I believe great cooking is less about amazing recipes and more about preparing your life to eat well. Growing a veggie or herb garden and cultivating a well stocked pantry are two simple things that will revolutionize the way you eat. Alice Waters mentions both of these in her book. The Art of Simple Food covers technique as well as providing great recipes. If you love to cook, or even if you don’t, I think this book has something to offer.

Favorite Quote:

“Let things taste of what they are.”

-Alice Waters, The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution

Annie Leibovitz At Work

by Annie Leibovitz

I often buy things JUST BECAUSE they have “behind the scenes” footage in them. Like in the BBC series Planet Earth, I love the “making of” more than the actual documentary. So it’s no wonder that Annie Leibovitz’s book “At Work” detailing how she made some of her most famous and iconic images is on my top five list. Even if you are not a photographer, I think you will still find something to love about this book. It’s beautiful in every way and not overly full of technical photographer jargon (I wish it had more!).

Favorite Quote:

“As much as I love pictures that have been set up, and as important as those pictures are to me, I’d rather photograph something that occurs on its own. The tension between those two kinds of photographs is at the heart of what I do. It’s not a conflict, but sometimes it’s useful to remember that things are happening right in front of you and that you don’t have to complicate the situation. You can take what’s given to you. You just need your mind and your eye.”

-Annie Leibovitz At Work, pg. 158

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

by Barbara Kingsolver

I love a good adventure story, and Barbara Kingsolver’s adventure into homesteading and eating locally and seasonally is a treat for me to read. Barbara writes her own life just as well as she does her novels and I love how she stepped out, made a change and decided to live off her land and the land within a close radius. In the process of writing this book she began a revolution. She asked people to consider consuming produce that is in season and grown near their homes. Stating not only would it taste better, but it would save the environment and it’s inhabitants from the jet fueled, mass produced, genetically engineered produce that has flooded the American market. Even if you don’t want to become a “locavore” I think you should give this book a try. Her stories are highly entertaining and her premise totally thought provoking.

Favorite Quote

“Planning complex, beautiful meals and investing one’s heart and time in their preparation is the opposite of self-indulgence. Kitchen-based family gatherings are process-oriented, cooperative, and in the best of worlds, nourishing and soulful. A lot of calories get used up before anyone sits down to consume. But more importantly, a lot of talk happens first, news exchanged, secrets revealed across generations, paths cleared with a touch on the arm. I have given and received some of my life’s most important hugs with those big oven-mitt potholders on both hands.”

― Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Life of the Beloved

by Henri Nouwen

If you have ever doubted your unique place in this world or in the heart of God, it’s best that you pick up this book and slap yourself in the face with it… and then give it a proper read. I am sure that most people who frequently read great spiritual classics whould say this is an extremely easy read. The words are easy, but the content is profoundly true… which means that I do a whole lot of, “Wait, whaa…. I need to read that again!” while reading this book. Which in turn means this little book takes me months to finish. It’s a “chewin’ the cud” book for me… and a book I always return to when life feels a little bleak.

Favorite Quote:

“No one has lived your life or my life before, and no one will ever live them again. Our lives are unique stones in the mosaic of human existence- priceless and irreplaceable.”

-Henri Nouwen, Life of the Beloved

The Gifts of Imperfection

by Brene Brown

I don’t even know how to begin describing this book. It is transforming the way I think, the way I relate to others and, essentially, the way I live out my life. Can it get any more powerful than that? I don’t think so. Read it and weep. Actually, I dare you to read it and NOT weep. Brene tackled my people-pleasing-approval-seeking-crazy-self to the ground and made me stay there until I appreciated who I am. Only then did she loosen her vice grip of a tackle and let me come up for air.

Favorite Quotes:

“Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.

“Worthiness doesn’t have prerequisites.”

“Courage is telling our story, not being immune to criticism.”

“Healthy striving is self-focused: “How can I improve?” Perfectionism is other-focused:”What will they think.”

― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection

June 26, 2012
Hanging my art

Here’s the deal. I have about a million and one hard drives that house a bah-zillion moments that I have had the privilege of photographing. It was starting to feel as if I had a house jam packed with photographs that were flowing out of packed closets Cartoon Network style. When really, they were just overflowing hard-drives… which is just as bad. I finally found some of my favorite ones a home, on my new portfolio website. Why do I bother with a portfolio when I have this blog, you ask? Well, because this is my art and I need a place to hang it. If you want to hang some of it on your walls I would love that too, but until that day I will hang it on my new site.

Making this site made me realize just how much I have grown as an artist since our move to Burundi. Growth gets me all excited… unless it’s the growth of something bad, like a wart. SO, here’s me… excited about growth and a place to hang my art. Check it out.

Happy weekend!

Love,

me

June 23, 2012
Burundi Coffee Farmer: Benjamin from Musema

This is Benjamin. We met Benjamin along the side of a dirt road in Musema. He was picking coffee cherries from his trees, and our kids were climbing over a fallen tree nearby with some local kids. We had a minute, so I asked Benjamin a little bit about his life. Here’s what he had to say.

Station: Benjamin delivers his coffee cherries to Musema washing station.

Family: Married, with one wife. He has five daughters, who all married coffee farmers. He’s very proud of that.

Trees: Benjamin has 1200 coffee trees. That makes him a very successful farmer by Burundi’s standards.

Last seasons crop: Last year Benjamin produced more than a ton of coffee and got 630 Burundi Francs per kilo ($.50 per kilo). That means Benjamin made about $500.00 last year. He also got a end of season bonus, along with other farmers from the station, from Bean There Coffee for producing such great coffee.

This seasons crop: This year Benjamin is producing less coffee. Most farmers are producing more. He doesn’t know why this is. He thinks his trees will yield about 500-700 kilos of coffee cherry this year. Because the NYC price has dropped, Benjamin will only make 465 Burundi Francs per kilo this year ($.33 kilo). At best, Benjamin will make about $230.00 this year.

June 18, 2012
Sometimes I want to fly away.

It’s true. I sometimes wish there was an open window and I could just fly myself “home” to the people who have loved me from birth and the places that I have seen forever. This week has been hard for me. The “toughness” of life in Africa has seeped into my being and I have found myself wishing I could just fly away. Until you have lived it, you might never know what I mean. We all have our own challenges that are unique to us in this life, and I am not saying my life is more of a challenge than yours… but I am saying there is a difference between visiting a place like this and LIVING IN IT. If you are going through something tough this week HERE IS ME saying to you that YOU ARE NOT ALONE. I am journeying too. I’m having a “tough one” too and I appreciate your bravery and the decisions you are making to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

I sometimes go running on the streets of Bujumbura. I’m a “gym” or “health club” (or whatever you call it in the US of A) girl at heart, but sometimes the road calls and I just have to get on it. Often, as I run, Burundians will shout out, “COURAGE! COURAGE!” I love that in both French and English this word is the same. This week, via Brene Brown’s beautiful book The Gifts of Imperfection, I learned that…

“The root of the word courage is cor– the Latin word for heart. In one of it’s earliest forms, the word courage had a very different definition than it does today. Courage originally meant, “To speak one’s mind by telling one’s heart.”

Now when people shout, “Courage!” at me I can’t help but think, “Thank you. I need it… but not for this run.” I need courage to tell my story even when it hits bumpy parts. Courage to continue on. Courage to stay firmly on the ground for the time being.

Love,

me

images DSLR and Hasselblad 501C

June 8, 2012
Becoming a coffee cupper + Home coffee hulling

{real men wear aprons. in the lab-o.}

How do you “cup coffee” and how do you get a job doing it?

This is a question I get asked a lot. To say that I’ll answer one part now and one part later will draw the questioning eyebrow of Camera Girl who knows that I drop empty promises about follow up posts. I think we are going to have to risk the eyebrow here and briefly tell you how I became a “professional coffee cupper” with the (not so empty) promise of a follow up post detailing the “how to.”

{Hulling coffee: The first step in dry milling is the removal of what is left of the fruit from the bean, whether it is the crumbly parchment skin of wet-processed coffee, the parchment skin and dried mucilage of semi-dry-processed coffee, or the entire dry, leathery fruit covering of the dry-processed coffee. Thanks Wiki. This is done on a small scale at our lab so that the samples we cup match what the end consumer gets.}

{Hulled beans and the parchment that was removed during hulling.}

Desperation for a good cup of coffee in South Africa in the early 2000’s was the starting place of it all for me.

The reality is that if we moved back to South Africa today we would have so many great choices for our morning cuppa. For just a taste of what’s available now in SA you can look up Bean There, Origin, Truth, Deluxe, Rosetta, TriBeCa, Espresso Lab, Haas, Bean Green, Colombo, Beaver Creek, Redberry…. and the list just keeps going and growing. In fact I see a whole new blog post on doing a South African coffee crawl, but let’s not make any promises. When we moved from Minneapolis, MN to Durban, South Africa in 2002 very few of the above options existed. It became a game for us to try and find great coffee. This led to a personal awakening… both coffee and people really mattered to me. From there, it was a hop skip and a jump to becoming a Barista trainer and then a Q Grader and then moving to a coffee producing country.

{Blowing excess parchment off the beans and little hands help pick out defects before roasting.}

{Defects I… or our child labor… that’s a joke… sort of… look for and hand-pick out before roasting.}

Coffee cupping is a lot like wine tasting.

In fact, the coffee industry really tries hard to be even more snobby than the wine people out there just to show the world how serious we are about coffee. There are coffee cupping flavor wheels, proper scientific procedures and strict controls attached to cupping protocol, various coffee boards and professional organizations, and perhaps the weirdest of all (to non-coffee geeks) is a coffee cupping competition involving hard fought battles on which cupping form is best. But this post is not to digress into the belly of coffee cupping politics, it is to give you a little taste of what I do on a near daily basis.

{The coffee samples begin to pour into the lab. Literally.}

Now I’m not exactly a scientist, I’m actually a fine art major turned coffee specialist.

Cupping is what I do to discover if a coffee is truly special, what price the farmers should likely get, and who (in the Western world) I think is most likely to appreciate it the most. After the coffee cupping comes the real work… chasing samples, following lots, making sure contracts are fulfilled, and most importantly in Burundi… getting the coffee onto the truck and out of the country.

Next time I do a blog “drop in” I’ll provide a detailed look at how to cup coffee. I pinky swear.

Coffee Guy

June 4, 2012

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