I.B.M.

I.B.Martinez

Originally uploaded by boscana

My beautiful mother.

August 21st, 1948 – May 25th, 2009

Siempre te tendre en mi corazon, amor.

Titi Socky and Paquito

Titi Socky and Paquito

Originally uploaded by boscana

me heart fills with joy when I see this. enjoy.

todo sobre mi madre

This is document, the passing of my beautiful beautiful mother…Ingrid Martinez on Memorial day (May 25th) 2009. I am deeply saddened, devastated and all of a sudden feel deeply lost in the world.

Cupping Coffees

We have been doing a lot of cupping recently, more than normal at Gimme Krums. We just got our delivery of 31 samples for the El Salvador Cup of Excellence. Unfortunately I will miss the festivities since the competition goes on the day I Get back from Guatemala.
I am honored to mention that I was asked to be a judge this year for the Guatemalan competition. I ma both humbled and nervous. I am excited for the opportunity to cup these beautiful coffees and to be in a group of folks that really care about the program and about the coffees.
I am concerned about calibration, though I trust my palate. I wonder how things will go. I am excited for Gimme, and for myself as we are making real efforts to become more involved with even higher quality coffee and projects. We scored a beautiful lot of the Panama Hartmann Honey and I can see us starting and maintaining this relationship with the Hartmann’s for a long time. I roasted a batch the other day in the drum and cupped it on Friday with Chris our production roaster and it was seriously delicious. I cannot wait to taste what the Hartmann’s have in-store this crop year.

Colleen cupping with Gabe

We are on the hunt for some killer Costa Rican coffee, and are awaiting the Guatemala CoE results as well. It will be a great year for Gimme as we really push forward with making our coffees better and better. We have a fantastic group of people working for Gimme, truly, some of the BEST people in the industry, and I am excited to be part of it all.
This blog is both personal and coffee based, so remember that when I post, I am posting for myself, not the place I work for.
Just a reminder…
The weather here is unbelievable, green, humid, thunderstorms, festivals, farmer’s markets, grillin’ and hiking.
So happy to be on this side of the country.
So happy to be drum roasting again, I don’t know of a more intuitive roasting machine than the Probat. I know, I am biased, but damn, that thing just reacts to the lightest touch. Sometimes I feel like if I just THINK about turning up the gas, the machine hears me and does it. It’s incredible. We are really learning so much about the process of roasting and the abilities and disadvantages of each method, I feel like a more well rounded coffee roaster due to these observations.
anyway, ending rant here…
grateful for the chance to travel to Guatemala and judge some awesome coffees, and grateful to be in a place where I can learn alongside other folks and try new things in the name of progress.
word. peace. out!

Manure, sunshine, salad, beer.

The ol’ lady and I spent 3.5 hours out in the sunshine this morning prepping (or starting to prep) our 22′X25′ garden space. We are sharing it with my friend and co-worker Anne Marie. I was raised in cities, never gardening ever in my life. The only gardening-like activity I did as a kid was pick lemons, bananas, mangoes and avocados from our back yard when I was a kid in Puerto Rico. That stuff grew on it’s own, no tending needed so I have VERY limited experience in the garden. So at the tender age of 30, I figured it wasn’t too late to start. I am very excited about growing out food. And canning and preserving the fruits for the winter.
We hauled manure, did soem rake tilling, weeding, set up posts and string and tomorrow we will go back to hook up the chicken wire and finish with the manure and de-rock and weed some more. Physically it is amazing, and exhausting but you feel like you have actually accomplished something. We went to a video art show last night and I saw that there are quite a bit of hipsters in Ithaca, and quite a few innovative artists too! sweet! I thought there were only hippy dippy, uber old school liberal quilt-makers and basket weavers here, but alas, there are young hip people doing cool shit here. I should be ashamed of myself thinking this way, but it’s the truth.
Not that there is anything wrong with quilting or basket-weaving, it’s the general attitude attached to these activities in this part of the country that truly make me wanna take a nap and not look at art.
I am ordering my supplies for a birthday porter I am making for a friend this week, and next weekend it’s beer-making time!
We have decided to grow tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, onion, eggplant, peppers, beans, squash, heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, lettuce, cabbage and the latest addition is hops! hells yeah. I am on the hunt for good hops. they are super expensive, so if I could grow my own it would be very very nice.
the weather here is beautiful, makes me happy to be back east. the seasons changing are truly good for the soul.

Huron, DQ

Huron, DQ

Originally uploaded by boscana

what a beauty.

You wanna buy some roasters and spro machines?

go here…

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dd6j9f4j_0d4jxsdgt

Thomas Keller is the man

Paths

My wife is a certified yoga instructor. She has been having a hell of a time finding a steady gig here in Ithaca and when she does find a gig the pay is pretty terrible. So, knowing this, she has decided to pursue something more stable, more helpful and more needed in the community here and at large. She has decided to pursue nursing school. She applied to the local community college’s nursing program.
This is such a perfect transitional path for her, because through the years, she has been going on a line of helping people and being an amazing caregiver. When her grandfather passed, she was one of the most intensely caring, calm and beautiful people he saw. This changed my perception of her for the positive, and she changed that day too. She starts school in the fall and she is terrified of going back to school with a bunch of kids.
Living in a college town at 30 is strange already for me, these are seriously BABIES! But I think she will have the advantage of being able to concentrate for long periods of time, and the pressure of succeeding will keep her in line.
I think she would be a fantastic nurse. I am so happy for her. All we have to do now is make sure she is charged instate tuition and we are golden.

The Q

I’m nervous as hell. Marty Curtis is someone I respect a whole lot. Coffee is something I have made into a career and a real passion in my life. I am a terrible student in regards to reading material. I have been told by many how tough this is.