Notes from the curator

In the southern region of Ethiopia, farmers pick coffee selectively, harvesting only ripe cherries individually by hand. Pickers rotate among the trees every 8-10 days, choosing only the cherries at peak ripeness. Many pickers average ~100-200 pounds of coffee cherries a day, which will produce 20-40 pounds of coffee beans. Each worker’s daily haul is carefully weighed, and each picker is paid on the merit of their work. The day’s harvest is then transported to the processing plant.