Project Mature Bean! Part 2, We Harvested!

Jari and I arrived back home in Jinotega late December, just before Christmas time. We took a few days to rest and recover from our travels and a small cold that traveling brings. We couldn't wait to go and see the field of beans now that it was almost harvest time. Up to this point, we only saw the field in pictures, but now it was time to be present and see the beans flow in the wind!

The plants did not disappoint us in person. They were healthy, bushy with big leaves and plenty of bean pods maturing to a nice deep reddish color. Some of the plants leaves had started to turn yellow as they were reaching maturity and dying off, putting the last of their nutrients into the beans. Darwin had done a great job caring for the plants and now he was preparing for the harvest, but when would they be ready? 

The answer was, wait. A test of patience. In the first week of January we saw large portions of the bean field dying off. Since this was Darwin's first time planting beans he wasn't exactly sure when to start the harvest. He asked his fellow agronomists in  the town of Jinotepe and sent them pictures, they told him, in another week. He asked a few other producers in the area, who planted beans around the same time we did. Their responses were, pull them out already and let them dry in the field. His instincts told him that wasn't right either. Other producers in the area were also harvesting beans and getting record prices for their harvest, "pull them now and sell before the prices fall!" they exclaimed! 

Beans ready for harvest

We went to see producer Daniel's field of beans high in the mountains. He is an older man, old enough to be Darwin's father. He has been growing beans his whole life. He led us up the mountain side to his field of beans hidden in the middle of a coffee farm. He also planted a sample of bean seed we gave him to try back in October. Darwin took the oppertunity to ask Daniel when he was going to harvest. Daniel responded, "If your beans looks like mine, you need to wait until they are brown, dried up and then you can harvest them. Another eight days." With a confident response received, Darwin decided to wait another week, until after we returned from a five day trip to the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. Friday, January 20, was chosen as harvest day! 

Step 1. Harvesting - On this day a very large portion of the beans were ready to harvest and needed to be picked before the pods started to split open. Darwin started calling a few friends to help us pull the beans out of the ground by hand. There were five of us in total pulling out all of the beans that were ready. We started at 6 a.m. and finished by 10 a.m. We finished just as a light rain started. All of the beans were gathered in a pile and placed under a sheet of plastic to continue drying and prepare for threshing three days later on Monday. I suspected the beans would not dry much, as Darwin later went back to cover them completely. We paid one of the harvesters to stay and guard the beans over the weekend, to protect them from late night "opportunists!" The next week, Jari and I were very sore, walking as stiff as Frankenstein's monster! 

A good days work! 

Step 2. Threshing - Three days later it was time to thresh the beans! Darwin was not able to find two original helpers from the harvest, so he hired two other individuals. One of them was teen from my church, Luis. In the past he told me he really likes farming and wanted to study agronomy. Darwin brought him along with us to finish our harvest. After the remaining beans were pulled from the ground, we laid the plants out over large plastic sheets in the field to continue drying in the sun while we set up the cloth for threshing. A twenty foot by twelve foot cloth was staked up in the field so when the beans were hit with the sticks and they went flying out, they would hit the walls created with the cloth and roll down into the center. 

We all took turns beating the beans with a large stick, then the pile was passed onto another man to be beat with smaller sticks. I was on the outside removing the gleanings from inside the cloth once they beans were all beaten out. We rotated to stay strong and keep the process going. We finished threshing by 4 p.m. We filled total of five sacks with the beans.

Step 3. Cleaning - We had purchased a large screen sifter made by a local carpenter. The next days we poured a portion of the beans out of the sacks into the sifter to clean out rocks, stems and leaves. Two women we contracted for the day to help us clean the beans. The beans must be cleaned in order to dry better and fetch a higher price at the market. We finished cleaning out the five sacks of beans by the end of the day, a tedious process, but also good time spend around the sifter talking about beans, life and faith in God! 

Windy days are a big help when cleaning

4. Drying - Once the beans were cleaned after sifting we placed them on plastic sheets in our yard to be dried by the sun. We thank God we had two completely sunny days! The beans were dried to a good firmness. We tested them by biting the beans to see how hard they were. We didn't want them to hard, and definitely not to soft. There is a humidity meter we can purchase in the future, ideal humidity for storing the beans is sixteen percent. 

bright red beans drying in the sun

5. Commercialization - Selling the beans was pretty easy for us, as we had several people interested in buying our beans. We were told a market price of $2,800 cordobas per quintal ($76 UDS/100lbs sack) while we were drying the beans. However, once they were ready to sell the price fell to $2,700 cordobas per qunital! Darwin had a challenging decision to make, sell today at a lower price, or wait to see what the market does in two or three days! Will the bean prices rise again, or fall even further? 

100 pounds ready for the market!

Darwin was stumped, so I suggested we go look at our profit and loss sheet, since now we knew how many quintals we had on hand! We only harvested
four quintals of beans, much lower than expected. No matter what price we received, the project lost money. Our yield was to low. The decision was made not to sell them to commercial buyers, but to friends, small stores and diners! Since we had a small amount to sell, we could go direct to the people who wanted beans and sell them for $3000 cordobas ($81 USD) a qunital! It worked and Darwin was able to sell three qunitals directly to the end consumer. We did sell one sack to a commercial buyer, just to get the word out that we had great bean seed and beans available for the next season! 

While we lost money on this project, what we learned together is invaluable. Darwin understands where he committed errors in sowing the bean seeds. He has noted these errors and he wants to plant again in May to improve the yields we can get. He has felt the pressures to produce quickly, and the challenge to stay patient in order to produce quality. The best profit of all, Darwin now has gained more confidence when talking with producers in the field, and when he gives workshops on agriculture and working with integrity. The challenge has been accepted, and in May, Darwin will start Project Mature bean 2.0!