Last Saturday was opening day for the local Little Leagues, and it's all baseball around our house right now.  With two games a week, and one to two practices a week, we are staying busy.  Trace is managing and Jack is playing--and it's a joy to see the smiles on their faces after a win.  Our game Wednesday night was under the lights, and it looked like an advertisement for Americana: boys and girls eager to play, the stands full of supportive parents, and pine trees standing like sentries behind the outfield line. 

	We wish you both all the best.

At the store this week, we said good-bye to two wonderful employees, who are both moving to another country this week.  How cool is that--for them, anyway?  Kelley will be working as a journalist in Iceland, and Maddi is going to work on a farm in Costa Rica.  Two entirely different directions for sure.  They have each worked for us for over a year, and we will miss them.  Best of luck to both of you!

This week's coffee is a unique bean that we have not carried in a while.  It comes from India, and while India grows quite a bit of coffee, most of it is not exported, and we don't have the opportunity to buy it very often.  This comes from the Chickmagalur growing region, in the far southwestern part of the country.

We have a customer from India who periodically goes home to visit family, and he says that this is a beautiful area, where elephants roam freely.  The coffee is grown on family farms, in the shade, and among other crops which help ensure stability for the farmers.  According to the Indian coffee board, see here, this region is "the home land of Indian coffee."

This Monsooned Malabar is especially unique because of the "monsooning" process.  After this coffee is processed, it is brought to the coastal city of Mangalore, where it is left in open sided warehouses during the monsoon season.  This exposes the beans to moisture and they swell in size and turn white.  They are then carefully brought to 11 percent moisture for exporting.