{"product_id":"burundi-masha","title":"Burundi | Masha","description":"\u003cp class=\"cvGsUA block-font-kerning-none block-font-feature-liga-off block-font-feature-clig-off block-font-feature-calt-off direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\"\u003eMasha Washing Station was built in 1989 and takes its name from the sub-hill it stands on, in the town of Gihororo in Kayanza province in the north of Burundi. The hill is better known for its cattle than for its coffee, and the name comes from the Kirundi word amasho, herds of cattle, because the sub-hill has long been a crossroads for herds moving through the region. Herders greet one another with a phrase used only in this part of the country, gira amasho, owner of cows. The coffee is grown by 1,128 smallholder farmers who deliver cherry to the station, nearly all of them subsistence farmers with 200 to 250 Red Bourbon trees planted in the yard behind the house at 1,672 meters, intercropped with the food crops and cash crops that support the family. Each tree yields about a kilo and a half of cherry, so the average farmer sells two to three hundred kilos in a season.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"cvGsUA block-font-kerning-none block-font-feature-liga-off block-font-feature-clig-off block-font-feature-calt-off direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\"\u003eNearly every tree in Burundi is Red Bourbon, and aging rootstock is one of the real structural problems in the country. Many farmers have trees over fifty years old, and with plots this small it is difficult to justify pulling them out of production for the three or four years it takes new plantings to bear. Greenco, which manages Masha along with twelve other stations in Kayanza, buys seed from the Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Burundi, raises the seedlings in its own nurseries, and sells them to farmers at or below cost. Farmers can also collect organic fertilizer at the station, made from composted coffee pulp.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"cvGsUA block-font-kerning-none block-font-feature-liga-off block-font-feature-clig-off block-font-feature-calt-off direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\"\u003eHarvest runs March through July, and every cherry is selectively handpicked by the family that grows it. Quality assurance starts the moment cherry reaches the station, where it is floated in small buckets as a first check. Greenco still buys the damaged and underripe fruit that floats rather than sending farmers home with it, separating it immediately and selling it as B-quality, which protects both the farmer's income and the top lot. The higher-quality cherry is hand sorted again, then depulped, fermented, washed, and dried slowly on raised tables. Lots stay separated by station, by day, and by quality all the way through the dry mill in Gitega, where hand-pickers examine every bean and two people spend a full day on a single bag.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mudhouse Wholesale Portal","offers":[{"title":"10 oz","offer_id":47357636935849,"sku":null,"price":15.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Kilo (2.2 lb)","offer_id":47357636968617,"sku":null,"price":45.75,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"5 lb","offer_id":47357637001385,"sku":null,"price":101.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/mudhouse-wholesale-portal.myshopify.com\/products\/burundi-masha","provider":"Mudhouse Wholesale Portal","version":"1.0","type":"link"}