Harvesting Coffee Beans with Inang

Harvesting Coffee Beans with Inang

"Inang, wait till I get home!" I said to my grandma before going to school that morning. I was at my 4th grade and my class was going to be done at around 1:00 pm.

"Alright, I sure will", said Inang, "I always do what we both agree on, don't I?" It made me feel good, knowing that Inang would be home. She always did what we both agreed on.

The night before, she and I already decided that we both were going to Simarbangsi. My dad and my mom needed to work at our farm in Sidompak those days. They needed to prepared the ground to plant ginger. It was a lot of work. My parents hired some of our neighbors to help out at that farm.

Simarbangsi is a farming area of the villagers up to now. It locates at the west side of the village. While Sidompak, also a farming area but at the opposite direction. It locates at the east side. Not only folks from Urung Panei have their farms there but also folks from the neighboring villages.

At that time when I was at my 4th grade, my parents just started to farm in Sidompak. Our farm in Simarbangsi belonged to my paternal grandparents, some part of it was under my dad's care, the only one who stayed in the village out of all his siblings.

Once my class finished that day, I rushed to go home, knowing that Inang was waiting for me.

"Eat your lunch", said Inang after I was done changing my school uniform with my everyday outfit to work at the farm.

"Yes Inang," I replied, walking to the kitchen to get a plate. I scooped some rice into my plate. It was still hot. Sigambiri-rice, our particular kind of staple. We planted the grain, sigambiri-paddy, at our farm. Mom cooked mujahir today! Nice! Also, she made my favorite pounding cassava leaf with rimbang!

I ate my lunch as quick as I could. Done.

"Inang, are you ready? I am done eating. Let's go", I said to Inang while putting my plate in a bucket.

We both walked out of the house and locked the door.

"Your dad is busy today. He already said to me that he is not going to pick us up from Simarbangsi", said Inang while we both kept on walking.

"No problem, Inang. We can walk".

"Well, you are right. We better finish picking coffee beans early since we get to bring it to Parsikolahan".

That's what we did especially Inang. Selling her fresh coffee beans to Tulang J. in a village, Parsikolahan. Sometimes, when my dad could make it, he would come to the farm to pick Inang up from the farm, in the evening. That day, he couldn't.

Most of the time, during my school years at elementary school, I was the only one whom Inang could trust to harvest her coffee beans together with her.

You must know how to harvest coffee beans! Pick the beans one by one in quick motion. Don't pick its bunch altogether since if you do, you destroy its upcoming beans to grow at the same spot. There is a high probability that new-beans grow at that spot again if you know how to handle it. If you don't, that probability is quite low to almost none.

That was one of the reasons why Inang preferred to only ask me to work with her harvesting her coffee bean. She also could remind me again and again on how to do the harvesting in a correct way.

During my childhood, even before I started my elementary school, I already worked, now and then, at Inang's coffee garden. I was paid according to the volume of the bean I collected, either by kilogram or using local measurement such as tumba.

Up until I finished my elementary school, in more than 6 years, I had been helping Inang picking coffee beans especially when it was in high season. Sometimes, I worked when school was in holiday. During holiday, my salary working at Inang's coffee garden was the same as the salary of an adult working at the farm. I did work from morning to late afternoon.

Most of the kids in the village up until now, can do what I used to do especially if their parents are farmers.  

We got to the farm after walking for almost an hour. We were already in the middle of the coffee garden picking the beans.

"Take that ladder and bring it here," Inang asked me, "we have a lot to pick here on its higher branches".

We rarely talked since we both were concentrating on collecting the beans the most we could. Also, I myself had to be careful as Inang always reminded me to do the work in a correct way.

Now and then, I sucked some beans, the most beautiful beans my hand could find. It tasted sweet.

Time went bye like a blink of an eye! When you enjoy what you do, that is the case most of the time, isn't it?

"Let's get ready. We must go soon," said Inang.

We both put the beans into two sacks. Soon, we walked to Parsikolahan, 30 minutes away from the farm, carrying sack on our head.

Tulang J smiled seeing us coming. He was the agent to whom Inang always sold her coffee beans. He hurriedly helped Inang and myself to put the sack on our heads down to the grown. Then, Tulang J measured the weight of our beans.

"25 kg, Amboru", he said.

"Alright Bapa, if you say so, then it is!" Inang replied.

Tulang J gave Inang some amount of money. After Tulang J thanked Inang, we both left.

"How about we eat some cake", Inang asked me.

Sure, it was a nice thing after all the work we did. I also felt hungry. I didn't really eat that much before going to the farm since I wanted to go soon.

We stopped at a warung not so far from Tulang J's house. We ate some cake. Then, we walked as quick as we could so not to get ourselves stuck in the dark on the road.

At home, after dinner, Inang used to give me the money based on the volume of the beans I did harvest. Often, Inang gave me more. Thank you Inang!

Nowadays, you no longer can find coffee trees at the farm in my village. Coffee is already replaced by orange. Farmers choose orange over coffee.  ***

You can also listen to me telling stories at my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@paulinasihaloho2899. Thank you for vising my blog here and also my YouTube channel.