Seasons greetings

We are staying warm in Chiang Mai ,Thailand as we hear of the blizzards back home.

 

 

Hope you have a great Christmas season. Stay warm.

 

New for Christmas

We have sent off some of the new goodies that we bought in Nepal to our stores. Just in time for that last minute shopping.
We found some really great silver and costume jewellery. The earrings and rings are particularly beautiful.

 

There are infinity scarves and magic hats in an assortment of beautiful colours and

 

 

Colourful shawls to wrap yourself in.

 

 

These stylish felt hats will keep your head warm, and the felt coin purses are just too cute.

 

The hand warmers are good for keeping the hands warm while the fingers are free to do their thing.

 

For the young or the young at heart there is a selection of animal hats.

 

And matching animal mitts.

 

Don't worry if you are running a little behind in the Christmas shopping. These are just in and there is sure to be something for that last minute gift. 

 

 

 

Our Coffee Story

Meet Sook. She has lived with us and been involved in our business in Thailand for about 5 years now. We refer to her as our daughter.

Sook is from a Karen Hilltribe village called Ban Khun Pae to the west of Chiang Mai.

Her village has become involved in the coffee growing business over the last few years in an effort to generate a cash crop.

Sook along with her family have started growing coffee on their land.

Here is Sook's mum.

 

 

And here is her dad

 

 

The problem for them is they don't have the cash to buy the machinery to process the coffee. That is where we have come in to the picture. We have acquired some of the machinery needed to process the coffee.

We are working with Sook's dad to harvest the coffee he grows and to purchase the freshly harvested coffee fruit from the other villagers, and to take it through to the final roasted bean that we then can market.

 

Here are some views of the land and Sook's village. The coffee is grown organically. Mainly by default as they can't afford to buy artificial fertiliser and instead use the cow manure that is freely available from their farms.
The coffee is grown on the hillsides surrounded by other trees such as avocados and the remains of an old plum orchard.

 

The village is quite high up and during the rainy season a 4 wheel drive vehicle is needed to get up there.

Harvesting of the coffee started a couple of weeks ago and will last for the next 2 months.

The coffee is harvested in the cherry. It is a round red fruit about the size of a cherry that contains 2 beans inside.

 

 

The fruit is put through a pulping machine that removes the flesh. The beans are then soaked in water for a day to remove the excess pulp and put in the sun to dry.

 

 

Once the beans are dry they can be stored.

 

 

The next process is to removed the hard skin that still surrounds the bean.

 

 

Then the really exciting process of roasting the coffee happens. We have had lots of fun learning to roast coffee and tasting it all.

 

 

This final roasted coffee we are selling in our stores in Canada and to coffee shops in Thailand.

 

 

We hope you enjoy it as much as we do. Know that for every cup you drink you are helping Sook, her family and the rest of her village to become more self sustainable.

 



Enjoy.

 

For updates on our coffee harvest check out The Travelling Gardener blog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Return from Nepal

We are back in Thailand after an amazing trip to Nepal. It has taken me a while to download the photos and get organised.
As well as buying some great stuff for the stores we managed to do a little exploring as well.
We took a few days to go up to Nargakot on a ridge that over looks the Himalayan range. If you are up early enough you can watch the sun rise over Everest. The next day we walked back down to Kathmandu exploring the country side along the way.

 

We also have our favourite temples to visit. This is a pic of  the Bodanath temple, a Tibetan temple on the outskirts of Kathmandu.

 

Battling the busy streets of Thamil where we do our buying is always a challenge.

But also part of the charm.

 

Here is a guy with a big load of fabric on his way to market.

 

 

The bead vendors were colourful and eye catching.

 

Their little shops grouped together. Each one seemingly more eye catching than the last.

 

Finally we decided on one and started to make our purchases.

 

 

This supplier of some of the great bags we found had a little help from his daughter when she got home from school.

 

 

The night we bought the incense from this vendor, the streets were so crowded we could hardly move. But he had a great selection so it was worth the battle.

 

So many great things to buy. We did our best.

 

 

We have gathered up all we bought and it is being packed , ready to be sent to Canada. We bought some great stuff, and are looking forward to getting it into the stores for you to see.

 

Nepal

We are in Nepal. Haven't been here in 10 yrs. We are excited to find new products and do some walking through the country side.
I'll tell you all about it in a bit.

Buying cloth

Choosing the cloth for the clothes is the first exciting step in the process of making the clothes we have decided to produce for next season in Canada.
Here Steve is standing on a mountain of cloth choosing the prints that we want.

Next step is measuring it all out.

 

Finally we take it all to Tui our sewer along with the patterns.Here Steve and Sook discuss what is to be done.( Tui is recovering from a recent motorbike accident). In a month the finished clothes and bags will start to trickle back to be organised for shipping to Canada.

 

It is exciting to take an idea from conception through product development and then see the final product in our stores. We hope that you will also be as excited next season when you have the chance to see it at Bwana Johns.

 

Coffee

A few days ago we went up into the mountains. Doi Inthanon is the highest mountain in Thailand.
We visited a Karen Village on the way up. They grow coffee in this village. After  sampling some coffee we bought some green beans to roast for our new coffee business.

Here is a coffee bush with beans ripening. They'll be ready to harvest in December.

 

A basket showing a selection of coffee beans with the pulp still on, some green beans and beans already roasted.

 

The roasting used to be done with this machine. The fire was of bamboo sticks under the drum, and the drum with the coffee in it was rotated by the guy on the bicycle.

Now the drum is powered by a motor and the fire is gas. Way easier. There was coffee roasting in this machine while we were there.

 



Grinding the coffee ready for the taste test.

 

 Boiling the water to pour over the ground coffee beans.

No picture of us drinking the coffee, but it tasted great.

Meet our suppliers

After hearing the horror stories coming out of Bangladesh about factories collapsing and the conditions the workers work in, I thought that it would be reassuring to meet some of the people who supply us with our clothes and handicrafts here in Thailand.
Many of our suppliers we have worked with for many years and they have become our friends. Over the next few weeks as we put in our orders for next season you'll get a chance to meet them.

Here Steve is with Samon and Wichok, and Sook. We buy our singing frogs and a few other handicrafts from Samon and Wichok. Sook lives with us in our house here in Thailand and we look on her as the daughter we never had. All our projects and crazy ideas involve Sook.

The tie-dye we do with Uraipan. We've worked with her and her husband for many years. Recently her daughter has joined the team. Uraipan is like a humming bird. At full speed all the time.Sometimes it is hard to keep up with her.

 

We just returned from a trip into the mountains where we ended up buying green coffee beans in a Karen hill tribe village. Had a great time there watching them roast coffee , and sampling the finished product. More on that when I get the photos downloaded.

 

Thailand

We arrived in Thailand a little less than a week ago and are slowly recovering from the jet lag. In a few days we can start thinking about making samples of new products, visiting our suppliers, peruse the markets and start buying for next spring.
This is always an exciting time, and always interesting to take an idea and see it through to the end. Sometimes the end isn't what we expect, but it is always fun.We always have way too many ideas.
We'll keep you posted on some of the developments and introduce you to some of the suppliers over the next few weeks.
In the meantime we will indulge our love of the great food here and try and fit in a few massages along the way. Hey it's a tough life but some one has to do it.

Kids sweaters

There should be a warning with these kids sweaters. They are so cute they make you want to have young children around just to dress them in them.
With lady bugs, flowers or trucks there is a design to appeal to all.
These hand knit sweaters come in a wool/cotton blend for comfort and warmth. The colours are divine.

The colourful alpaca fringe hoodies are light and cosy. Light enough that a jacket will go over top for another layer.

Just when it couldn't get much cuter, there are the finger puppets in a wide variety of characters from cartoons and fairy stories.

Cozy up in a handknit sweater

It's Thanksgiving weekend. The leaves are past their peak and there is no denying that it is only a matter of time before we see some snow.
It seems like the perfect thing to be wearing is a big colourful hand knit sweater. Big enough to add as many layers as needed underneath. Comfortable enough to wear on that brisk fall walk or just to curl up on the couch with a book.

 

For something with more of a feel of a jacket, there are these woven sweaters. With or without a hood. The wool is blended with cotton, so you have the warmth of wool with the comfort of cotton.

Coming in an assortment of colours from the truly colourful, to muted neutrals, there is something to suit all tastes and styles.

 

Have a great Thanksgiving.