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Despite the patriarchal traditions of Ethiopia, women are still a driving force in the coffee industry, and some are forces of nature!
Bedhatu Jibicho is one such coffee farmer, and a native to the Worka region of Gedeb. At over 80 years old, she might be the most experienced having co-managed (with her late husband) the 23-hectare plot of government-allotted farmland since the 1960s. Her family continues to work the farm, especially aided recently by her son Tesfaye Roba. They have plans to use the premiums for their harvest to expand the farm and startup an export business.
Originally part of the Worka cooperative, Mrs. Jibicho joined the Banko Gotiti cooperative when it opened in 2013. Though much smaller, Banko Gotiti was much closer to her farm. That same year, her farm was recognized as a community model, and she took specialty coffee preparation training which enabled her harvest to be separated and sold traceably through the YCFCU (the umbrella Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union covering coops in the Gedeo Zone).
While not unheard of, it's exceedingly uncommon to find a single-farmer lot from Ethiopia. This remarkably clean natural process coffee offers an unique opportunity to taste the very specific terroir of this farm, in this tiny border-region of Southern Ethiopia, the homeland of Arabica. Gedeb is a woreda (district / city) located close to the Yirgacheffe woreda; both are situated in the narrow band of the Gedeo Zone that is straddled by Sidama and Oromia.
We have held many natural Yirgacheffes over the years, and this is already in our fruit bomb hall of fame. Notes of blueberry, guava, strawberry,caramel, nougat, guava and almond among even more came through at the cupping table. Recommended best as drip, and tantalizing as espresso.