At Café Campesino, we truly enjoy what we do. We strive to help, through simple conscious actions, make the world a better place. And we typically enjoy writing this newsletter and sharing our stories with you. But it was very difficult, and felt somewhat irrelevant, to assemble this month’s chronicle of our fair trade work. These are dark times. Our country’s leadership is determined to cross — with grand, destructive force — the line we drew in the sand. We hope that more rational minds will prevail and the war will be called off. We pray for the safety of all of those who will be affected by this inevitable invasion. And we hope that one day mankind will resolve to balance the immense resources and energy that are so readily invested in armed conflict with an equal investment of creative talent, thought and finance in the name of peace. Astounding, delightful things would happen.

That said, we continue with this issue of Fair Grounds...

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Our group doubled in size when we gathered at the Dos Lunas Pension in Guatemala City. Monika, Scott, Helen and I were joined by Kelli of Sentient Bean, Kate of Idyll Foundation, Ethan and Kristina — both representing Larry’s Beans. Our expanded group began with a morning visit to Orocafe, a green coffee processing plant that cleans and exports the coffee from our Guatemala trading partner, Apecaform. We toured the warehouse, cupped our coffee and then headed out of the city — next stop Lake Atitlan.

More adventures are ahead by clicking here.
http://www.cafecampesino.com/fairgrounds/
newsletters/200303/bhadvent.html

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So, you’ve heard of the phrase Swiss Water Process as you’ve poked around your favorite local coffeehouses, or shopped online with Café Campesino, but you’ve never really understood what it means. Do you need to use imported bottled Swiss water to make the coffee? Does it have something to do with those little army knives with the screwdrivers, corkscrews and pickaxes? Are there magical Swiss elves who spray fire engine hoses at the beans until the caffeine jumps out in surrender?

Well, that last idea isn’t that far from the truth, actually. Okay, the part about the elves isn’t quite accurate, but the caffeine does "jump" out of the beans while being soaked in water. Perhaps I should start at the beginning…
http://www.cafecampesino.com/fairgrounds/
newsletters/200303/decaf.html

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http://www.coopamerica.org/ftf/conference/index.html

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Think you know a lot about coffee? Then enter our Fair Grounds Trivia Contest. Click here for our question of the month. Entering is easy and it's FUN!

Our judges for our last contest were certainly impressed with your knowledge of coffee. Using some new Swiss osmosis process suggested by Nate Wayman, our judges were able to narrow down the field to around 3% making it a simple choice to pick Bonnie Verner as our new Trivia Contest Winner. Congratulations, Bonnie.

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— President Harry S. Truman

• February 2003
• January 2003
• December 2002
• November 2002
• October 2002
• September 2002
• August 2002
• July 2002
• June 2002
• May 2002
• April 2002