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SMALL FARMER, BIG PLANS continued from page 47 SHORTFALL: The slower-ripening Yellow Catuai varietal generated high-quality cherries for Toñito, but there wasn't enough of it to bring his harvest to a size that would make for a profitable micro-lot. The 382 total pounds of coffee that was of a quality level suit- able for the international specialty market will be mixed with coffees from producers Alfredo Ponce and Sara Juarez, who also produced outstanding coffees and processed them at UMF's ben- eficio, but who also were not able to garner enough for single- farmer micro-lots. Toñito isn't one to dwell on the past, however. "Next year, things will go better and I will be able to prepare more coffee," he said moments after deciding not to bring additional coffee to the beneficio. "Besides, my plants will be in better shape, so the coffee will be better anyway." It is this spirit that makes Toñito who he is. He did everything right this year, and things didn't turn out as well as he had hoped. But giving up is not something he's entertaining. There is a Honduran saying that there is no choice but to seguir adelante— "continue moving forward." Next year can always be better. TRAGEDY STRIKES Three weeks after the last coffee was out of the beneficio and the same day that the last La Unión micro-lots were being trans- ported for export to the United States, the farmers of La Unión were devastated by another unexpected weather pattern. It was 3 p.m. on an extremely hot day when the skies went black and the temperature dropped 20 degrees in a matter of minutes. And then came the hail. In La Unión, the ice chunks started small and grew to the size of golf balls. People stood in doorways watching this curious phenomenon. It lasted more than 15 minutes, leaving behind a layer of ice and dented rooftops. It had been years since the last time such violent weather hit La Unión. Soon, reports started coming in from surrounding areas. The storm had brushed La Unión, but several nearby villages had been 48 Fresh Cup Magazine freshcup.com ravaged. As people in La Unión had been watching curiously from their doorsteps, only a few miles away thousands of people were running for cover from hail that was as large as grapefruit. Fortunate residents took refuge inside their homes, only to find hailstones bursting through their tin rooftops. The less fortunate took cover under nearby trees or structures, while some people had nowhere to hide and were stuck in the open. The hailstorm stopped as abruptly as it had started, but it will take years to recover from the devastation it left. Roofs were destroyed, people injured, and water sources damaged and con- taminated. Residents could only expect the worst for coffee fields as they looked at the several inches of hail covering the ground. A quick survey of their fields confirmed their worst fears—cof- fee plants that had been lush and green only hours earlier looked dead. Leaves were stripped away, bark chipped off and the roots of the plants chilled beneath the ice. Toñito was one of the more fortunate ones. "We got a little hail," he said shortly after the storm, "but it wasn't much. It didn't damage houses or farms. Thank God, we are going to be fine here." Rigoberto Paz, a farmer who works with Unión MicroFinanza in the village of El Sitio, was not so lucky. "They're burnt," he said of his coffee plants after assessing the damage to his field. "They used to have good foliage, but now there's nothing left. My house is fine, but my solar dryer got destroyed. The hail broke all of the tubing and shredded the plastic. I will need to rebuild it and start over on my farm." AFTER THE STORM Immediately following the disastrous episode, area residents looked around at what needed to be done and got to work. Local