So here are a few outdated pictures from the nursery. I'm returning to the farm this weekend and plan to take a few updated pictures.

This is a blurry angle on the nursery, just to give you an idea of the scope.

The seeds started in a mulched bed of rice hulls, burnt corn cobs, riverbed sand and topsoil. The seeds were allowed to sprout until they nearly stood up straight, at which point we pulled them up and inspected the roots. Root behavior is established early in the coffee tree's life and will affect the way it draws water and nutrients for up to 100 years (sometimes longer). Trees with crooked, puny or otherwise undesirable roots were discarded. It was hard to convince Niti's brother that we needed to throw away more than a quarter of our sprouts. We already have more than we can handle... might as well focus on the good ones.

After sorting, they're transplanted to rows of seed bags.

Then the cotyledon brakes through the hull ...

...and fan out into sails that gather the first scraps of sunlight .

Once the roots acclimate to the new soil, secondary leaves start to sprout. These actually look like real coffee leaves.

The secondary leaves keep stacking up in pairs. Now most of the trees have four pairs. We hope to get everything in the ground by early August.