January on the Finca: Cold Mornings and Red Cherry
Cold mornings, the first ripe cherry, and a long season ahead. A notebook entry from the heart of the harvest.
In January the whole mountain smells like sugar and wet earth, and nobody sleeps past five.
Summary
- January sits in the middle of the coffee harvest in the Antigua region.
- Mornings are cold, afternoons are dry, and the pickers start early.
- Work on the finca continues alongside the roots and the workshop.
Key takeaways
- The coffee season gives the finca its rhythm.
- Cold, clear mornings are one of the great pleasures of the dry season.
- Everything we make is shaped by this calendar.
January is the month I would show someone if they only had one chance to see the finca.
The cold at dawn
Antigua sits high, around fifteen hundred meters, and in the dry season the nights are cold. We wake to a thin mist lying in the valleys. The volcano stands out sharp against the sky. A cup of coffee at six in the morning is not a luxury. It is a necessity.
The cherries
By January the harvest is well under way. The pickers move through the rows early, taking only fruit that has turned fully red. It is slow, careful work. Each picker carries a basket, and the day's weight is measured at the end of the afternoon. You can read more about the people behind that in A Picker's Day, From Dawn to the Weigh-In, though that story comes a little later in the calendar.
The smell is something I cannot reproduce in words. It is sweet, a little like ripe fruit left in the sun, mixed with the damp of the mill. When the wind turns, it reaches the house.
Between rows
The roots and the workshop do not stop for the harvest. The trunks we dug out are drying. Marvin checks them each morning as part of his rounds. The turner in town has started working on the first forms. The finca is quietly doing two jobs at once: it is growing coffee, and it is learning how to make something new.
What January teaches
The coffee year is a loop, and January is its loudest point. Everything we have worked toward since the rains arrives at once, and we are never fully ready. I find that I like it that way. A season that cannot be rushed or postponed is a good teacher for anyone trying to build something slowly.
Each piece in our archive carries a little of this calendar. It was dug from this ground, dried in this air, and turned in a town that sits under the same volcano.
Common questions
When is the coffee harvest in Antigua?
The harvest generally runs through the dry season, with the busiest weeks in the first months of the year. Timing varies with altitude and weather.
Do you work on the roots during harvest?
Yes. The harvest and the workshop run in parallel. The roots dry slowly, so there is time to tend both.
Keep reading
Every piece is one of one.
Browse the specimen archive and acquire the piece that speaks to you. Each is catalogued once and sold once.