Entry #2. A Memory- Coffea

Hi, here I am again keep trying to write all fun things in life. This time I want to lead you to a place half of the earth away, into a small country, set down in a beautiful village. It was my hometown in Vietnam about twenty-five years ago. 

I grew up in a small town, where everybody knew each other really well. If there was a guest in your house, half day later the whole town would know who came to your house for whatever reason. Most of people here were farmers who grew coffea in their lands. Coffea is a plant which produces coffee beans. When coffea reaches maturity, it bears small red fruits in clusters along its branches. There is only one harvest per year, which usually is from September to November. In my town, when it came to harvest time, all the fruits were picked by hand, brought home, and dried under sunlight directly for seven to ten days. The outer shell of red fruits became dark brown and brittle. After that, the dried fruits were smashed up by a machine to collect the coffee beans inside. People collected and sold those coffee beans. At that time, there was not a lot of machines or technology to help harvesting. Therefore, all the work were done mainly by human's labor. Harvesting was not only the busiest time but also the happiest time in my town. It represented for a comfortable life. It was the money to spend for almost the whole year. Everybody worked really hard from sunrise to sunset. 

 My parents was even busier. They had a big coffea farm and a portable machine to break up the dried fruits. Therefore, beside harvesting our farm, they had to take that machine to house after house to make a little more money. My siblings stayed home, took care each others and helped drying the coffea fruits.

A few year later, the price of coffee bean dropped down really low. Selling coffee bean did not make enough money for the whole family. Sadly, people in my town had to cut all coffea trees down to grow different trees. Those images of coffea and harvesting season only lived in my memory. 

Coffee has become a really popular drink nowadays, but not all people know how the coffea plants look and harvest. By sharing this memory, I hope everybody can know a little about this special tree, also a little about my hometown.Thank you for reading my post. I will see you in my next one. 

PS: I got pictures from the website :

https://romanocoffee.com.vn/trong-ca-phe-bao-lau-thi-thu-hoach-1.html