Bumba Hill, Burundi

After watching the Long Miles Project work for a few years, The Barn are extremely happy to run their second season with them. Burundi is very fertile despite ongoing deforestation in many areas. With altitudes up to 2000 meters, volcanic soils and rainfall of 1300 mm per year, the growing conditions for coffee are very good.

This is the first year that Long Miles have ever processed washed coffee from Bumba Hill. It was processed on the brand-new Ninga Hill Washing Station. The processing and sorting was extremely accurate and done with the highest level of attention to quality.

Ben and Kristy Carlson moved to Burundi in 2011 and saw that both injustice and poor farming practices permeated the country's newly privatized coffee industry. They also saw that roasters around the world had a difficult time getting consistently great coffees from Burundi. In an effort to see positive change in both farmers and roasters lives, Long Miles Coffee was born.

Long Miles Project is a farmer-driven coffee production model. They work with coffee farming families on eleven unique hills within Burundi. Long Miles create traceable micro-lots that yield consistently great coffees while improving the livelihoods of the small holding farmers who grow them. Here are three of the most important ways to do this:

The farmers who grow coffee on the eleven hills receive year-round agricultural assistance through one of the twenty-six Long Miles Coffee Scouts who are trained agronomists.
Long Miles pay higher prices for coffee cherries as well as annual premiums.
They strengthen relationships between roaster and farmer so they can serve coffee from a specific hill year after year.