So my friend Rebecca Barria came home from a month in Panama and brought me goodies--candies, cookies, "molas" (reverse-applique textiles handmade by women of the Kuna tribe), and organic coffee from a small coffee farm she toured. Rebecca had been sending me pictures and videos daily, and I had already seen the women at work on their stitchery and the coffee beans floating in water and then laid out to dry in the sun. Rebecca is just starting to write about her experiences, and I believe we are in for a real treat. This kick-off article gives a bountiful "taste" of her trip.
The coffee was so outstanding, day after day after day, that as I started running low on it, I found myself obsessing about how much better truly fresh-roasted coffee was and considered importing my own coffee beans from this farmer or another who pays his pickers fair wages, and roasting my own, in, um, a popcorn popper--isn't that what people are doing?
I had to learn. I remembered Land of a Thousand Hills, a social justice for-profit coffee company headquartered near me that helps farmers in Rwanda earn a living wage, rebuild their communities, and lead toward greater reconciliation following the genocide in 1994. I had written about it a couple of times already (including this post from 2008), and was thoroughly sold on the company's mission. I contacted Mike Singletary, the Director of Roasting and Production for Land of a Thousand Hills, about touring the roastery and his response was simple and kind: "I would love to give you a tour of the roastery." I had included Rebecca in this exchange, as she wanted to build on her Panama knowledge and she is poised to take off in a big way as a national writer.
So here they are, Mike and Rebecca, in the roastery. The glorious smell of roasting beans permeated the space, punctuated by shiny red equipment that almost screamed, "Everlasting gob stoppers in progress." 
Shelves piled high with burlap sacks from not just two locations in Rwanda (where Land of a Thousand Hills has actually built its own wash station, and has an interesting bike-loan project that literally changes lives) but also Thailand (grow coffee for a fair wage and you no longer need to grow plants for drugs nor sell your children into the sex trade), and Haiti (where coffee growing used to be abundant and perhaps once again will be, so that devastation can turn once again into dreams fulfilled).
I couldn't get my eyes off the burlap bags, because, well, you know where I'm going with this. Burlap bags are perfect for growing potatoes, and potato planting time is now (for my grow zone), and for the next couple of months elsewhere around the Northern Hemisphere. Land of a Thousand Hills sells their burlap coffee sacks for $5 on their website (and they all have some sort of writing on them about where they are from, which I love). Why not grow your potatoes in these and help support this truly world-changing company in its mission? I bought four. A call to my nearest Whole Foods to ask the produce manager to save potatoes with eyes for me followed soon after, especially since I'm working with a food pantry garden that has absolutely no budget (and, besides, I can't access seed potatoes at this time of the year because the companies that sell them don't have them yet, and if I plant much later in my climate, it gets too hot for the plants too soon for a robust harvest). 
But back to Mike. Here's the amazing detail. Mike was hired in November of 2011, as in three months ago. As of October of 2011, Mike had never roasted a coffee bean in his life. Mike found out about Land of a Thousand Hills during his years as a Youth Minister at churches in Florida and Alabama (more than 650 churches nationwide feature Land of a Thousand Hills coffee in order to help support its efforts). Mike had simply volunteered over the years with the company at large conferences. He built relationships, and things went from there. Yes, Mike trusted the journey, and heard and heeded his latest calling.While Mike and I were talking, before Rebecca arrived, the founder of Land of a Thousand Hills walked into the roastery. There is no other way to say this but to say that when Jonathan Golden entered the room, his light filled it, from the tops of the coffee-bean-stacked shelves, over the bright red hoppers, to the opposite end of the room where an employee hand-packed one-pound bags for sale.
Jonathan is an ordained Anglican priest (who also worked as an industrial psychologist) who simply wanted to create a small, positive solution, possibly on the weekends with his sons. In the last six years he has built a business modeled on "community trade" where his company doesn't just pay fair wages but also becomes integrally involved in community building from the ground up. You simply must take a few moments and watch these videos to feel Jonathan's essence (and also that of a very impressive and charismatic man named Robert, with whom we talked quite a bit) and to begin to understand the impact the simple Drink Coffee. Do Good trademarked-message of Land of a Thousand Hills is inspiring.
I asked Jonathan what his secret was for keeping the positive vibe going at a growing company that was no longer a start-up, and he answered, "I hire people for jobs into which they still need to grow." Like hiring someone in charge of the roastery who has absolutely no experience in it? Yeah, I'd say that's putting faith in the people. And you know what? It works. Mike's quiet strength and deep commitment comes through loud and clear.
As for me, with a company like this just miles from my home, I'm putting my popcorn popper away (besides, there are actually three critical stages to roasting coffee beans, I now know thanks to Mike, and popcorn poppers simply don't accommodate this). I'll stick to growing potatoes.
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