Special Section for My RCI Students

Hi To My RCI Students,

I bet you have all begun your final countdown to the end of the school-year. I hope you are all still working hard and doing your best even though it is getting harder and harder to stay focused. I am sorry I have not been good about sending notes to you. I've been very busy taking care of Andy and Dana. Thanks to Colton and Brandi for your comments--very cool. I don't know if I should thank the person who wrote "nerd ha ha ha ha". I have a guess who that might be:)
As you may have read in an earlier post, we recently visited a coffee plantation. Colombia is very well known for its coffee. The plantation we visited was a small one. I guess there is an area northwest of Bogota where there are huge coffee plantations. This area is perfect for growing coffee because it has a lower elevation than Bogota (Bogota is about 3000 meters above sea level) and the days are warm and nights are cool. We learned that it is best to pick the coffee beans when they are red in color, not yellow (See picture below). People actually pick these by hand. If you were to taste a coffee bean right from the plant you would find that it doesn't have much of a taste. It is only after they are roasted that they get the coffee taste that we are familiar with. I am not crazy about coffee, but if I were I gather that Colombian coffee would be delicious.


This is the machine where the coffee beans are roasted. I love the smell of coffee, just not the taste.

Here is a close up of a coffee plant. Would you pick the red ones or the yellow ones?

I thought I would throw this beautiful picture of an orchid in here. Colombia's national flower is the orchid. There are many many varieties.

Well, hope you learned a little something. The first student to tell Mrs. Ihlenfeldt that it is best to pick the red coffee beans will receive a special prize. The first student to tell Mrs. Ihlenfeldt that it is best to pick the yellow beans, will have a lunch bunch:)

Adios for now.

Mrs. McCoy