Fair Grounds Newsletter from Cafe Campesino

888.532.4728 (tel)
229.924.2468 (tel)
229.389.4814 (fax)
(more contact info)

New Year... Big Goings On!
Treat Your Valentine to Something Special
Newsletter Special: Colombia and/or Maty's Blend
Brief Report from Sumatra
Producer Profile: Fondo Paez, Colombia
Updates and Upgrades
Community Caravan
Quote of the Month
Past Issues of Fair Grounds

Happy New Year from all of us to all of you! And, we want to thank everyone — from crop to cup — who helped us to make 2007 another banner year for Café Campesino! We've got a lot going on here so grab your mug, fill it to the brim with your favorite Café Campesino brew, and read on!

First of all, we'd like to introduce our newest team member Ciera Moreno, who will be with us for at least the rest of the semester as an intern. Ciera joins us from Georgia Southwestern State University where she is pursuing a bachelor's degree in marketing. Since joining us right before the holidays, Ciera has been focused on helping the front office get itself better organized and, even more importantly, working with our crew to put the final touches on and test our soon-to-be-launched spankin' new website and shopping cart...

That's right... while our current website and shopping cart have served us well over the past few years, it's time to upgrade, especially given the quantum advances that have been made in the way we get information and shop online. Read more about our website update in the Updates and Upgrades section below.

Also, in this month's issue, we'll give you a brief preliminary report on Bill's trip to Sumatra and what the future holds for our Sumatran coffee, re-introduce you to our producer partners at Fondo Paez in Colombia, fill you in on our crew's upcoming travels/activities in Community Caravan and, provide you with a neat little recipe to spike your favorite Café Campesino brew.

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A Friendly Reminder - Valentine's Day is February 14th, and that's just around the corner. This year, we've got two neat little ideas for customers who want to give a truly UNIQUE, Fair Trade gift to that special someone! We're offering two special Valentine's Day gift packs.

The first, for coffee lovers, includes: (1) shiny, red, Café Campesino 100% biodegradable corn travel mug, (1) pound of our good-karma, love-enhancing Benevolent Blend, (1) 4 oz gift bag of truly exquisite Fair Trade Dark Chocolate Pecan Bark made by our friends at Koinonia, and a hand-crafted Café Campesino key chain made by the members of the CODEMU women's development committee at CAC Pangoa – our cherished trading partner coop in San Martin de Pangoa Peru!

The second, for our tea lovers, includes: (1) Box of Choice Fair Trade Organic Orange Blossom Tea, (1) Box of Guayakí Chai Spice Mate, (1) 4 oz gift bag of truly exquisite Fair Trade Dark Chocolate Pecan Bark made by our friends at Koinonia, (1) shiny, red, Café Campesino 100% biodegradable corn travel mug, and a hand-crafted Café Campesino key chain made by the members of the CODEMU women's development committee at CAC Pangoa.

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This month, we're offering readers of Fair Grounds a discount on the truly excellent coffee produced by our friends at Fondo Paez in Colombia and/or on the new blend created by our one and only Maty de Barrios, which we have decided to name, well, Maty's Blend! Order any size bag (1, 2, and/or 5 pound) of our Colombia Medium Roast, Colombia Dark Roast, and/or Maty's Blend (Full City Roast) and get 10% off of the regular listed retail price. Be sure to enter promotional code cmdm8 when prompted at check out or let us know if you call in your order. Please note that the newsletter special applies only to retail customers and cannot be combined with any other discount or promotional code.

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A couple of weeks before the holidays, Bill returned from what we understand was a truly extraordinary trip to Sumatra! Before zipping off to Colombia, Bill sat down with us to bring the Café Campesino crew up to date, albeit briefly, on his two week adventure on the other side of the world... and we thought we'd better share it with you in this edition of Fair Grounds, especially given how much our Sumatra Full City is loved! We'll share more detailed information about our producer partners at ForesTrade/PPKGO and some of the new trading partner relationships we're developing there in upcoming issues of Fair Grounds. In the meantime, here are a few nuggets of info we hope you find interesting...

Here's what Bill learned about what it is that makes Sumatran coffee so different from the rest of the world's coffee.

Read on...

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Our Colombian partner, Fondo Paez, was founded in 1992 with the primary goal of recuperating traditional indigenous agricultural knowledge. By 2000, they were selling coffee through the Coffee Federation's Specialty Coffee program. In 2003, they produced seven containers of coffee, both conventional and organic certified. They are governed democratically and are extraordinarily well organized.

Fondo Paez is committed to the self sufficiency of its people and maintains a holistic approach to farming, which is quite evident on the farms. Membership is family-based and requires involvement with the organization and incorporation of the Fondo Paez principles of food security and sustainable agriculture into member's farms and lives.

Read on...

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As we mentioned in the opening to this edition of Fair Grounds, we're upgrading our website and shopping cart! Our new website, which will go live in three to four weeks (or so) provides for clearer navigation, easier ordering, and continuous updating of our content... all of which we know will translate into a better experience for our customers! We're working on putting the final touches on the transition from the old to the new site... until then, please keep your eyes peeled for emails from us about the upgrade.

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Café Campesino held its annual open house at the roastery on December 13th and, from start to finish, we had a blast and hope that everyone who joined us did too! This year's Open House had a record number of people in attendance, and even though it was a little toasty outside, we served up lots of coffee! Congratulations to all of you who were able to stump Bill and Tripp with various bits of coffee trivia and win door prizes. A big thank you to the Café Campesino team for all their hard work and preparation.

Last week Bill hopped on a flight to Colombia to get a little R&R while also meeting with our trading partners and looking for additional sources for a little more of that delicious Colombian coffee. Don't work too hard, Bill! Stay tuned next month for all the details...

Good news for Timor fans: Our East Timor dark roast is back on the menu as of January 15th and the outlook for a steady supply from now on looks good!

On Friday, January 18th — Saturday, January 19th, Café Campesino and our friends Jackie DeCarlo, Sr. Program Advisor - Economic Justice Team for the CRS Fair Trade Program, and Simone Blanchard, Program Officer with CRS' Southeast Regional office will host approximately 25 other folks from throughout our region for a Fair Trade training program entitled Train the Trainer. On Friday the 18th, this dynamic group of Fair Trade advocates will meet at the roastery for a Pat's Place pizza dinner (FYI - Pat's Place is one of Americus' best eats!) followed by a full day of Fair Trade workshops at Koinonia, a Christian farm community founded in 1942 by Clarence & Florence Jordan and Martin & Mabel England. Koinonia is home of the Cotton Patch Gospel, birthplace of Habitat for Humanity, Jubilee Partners, the Prison Jail Project, Fuller Center for Housing and other ministries. Given CRS' leadership in the Fair Trade movement and its support of 100% Fair Traders like Café Campesino, we're certain that this event will have the same positive impact as did the first which was held here at Café Campesino just one year ago!

Tripp will serve up Café Campesino and talk Fair Trade once again at the Georgia Sustainable Business Day event held in the Georgia State Capitol Building on January 28th. Sustainable Business Day is an annual event that gives Café Campesino and dozens of other "green" Georgia businesses an opportunity to showcase an impressive range of products and services to the state's legislators and the plethora of staff, lobbyists, and constituents who fill the halls of the Capitol building. Who knows...maybe Café Campesino will some day be the coffee of choice in our fine state's Capitol rotunda!

Tripp will make the trek to Destin, Florida, from February 1st-3rd for the Pensacola-Tallahassee Diocesan Youth Conference where high school youth from across the Diocese will gather for a spiritual, social, educational and recreational weekend. Tripp will host two workshops that will introduce the youth to Fair Trade. The conference consists of keynote speakers, popular entertainers, and workshops for both youth and adults by regional and national speakers, recreation and free time, an awards banquet, dance, and a closing liturgy.

During the weekend of February 15-17, Café Campesino will be exhibiting at this year's Coffee Fest in Washington DC. We will be in booth 214 at the Washington DC Convention Center, serving up samples galore!

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"One kind word can warm three winter months"

~ Japanese Proverb

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Fair Grounds is produced by:

Café Campesino
725 Spring Street
Americus, GA 31709

Contact Information:

Orders and General Information
Phone - 888.532.4728, 229.924.2468
Fax - 229.389.4814
http://www.cafecampesino.com
www.cafecampesino.com/store/index.php
info@cafecampesino.com

Staff:
Chelsea Carter
Maty de Barrios
Marco de la Paz
Bill Harris
Lee Harris
Geoffrey Hennies
Karen Macario
Ciera Moreno
Tripp Pomeroy
Lily Royster
Rebecca Young

Fair Grounds is designed and delivered by:

Starstruck Design
335 West Gill Road
Gill, MA 01354

Contact Information:
Don Kruger
Lynn Nichols
Phone - 413.863.7752
Fax - 413.863.7752
http://www.starstruckdesign.com

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