New Year’s Day and my last morning in Java was spent drinking coffee and eating fried bananas. Visiting the Glenmore plantations; coffee, rubber and cocoa are the predominant crops. A tour of the plantation and factories give an insight into the processes of these rudimentary staples of society, all of which are harvested and processed by hand with basic machinery. Fifteen hundred hectares are managed and worked by 300 people.

Coffee beans, Glenmore Plantation (Louise Kenward, 2014)

Drinking coffee with Sophina a few days ago, the local ‘Starbucks’ to Semilion, Glenmore offered some contrast. Sophina has been making coffee for the last 78 years. Now 92, this is her only means of supporting herself. Her character glows as she poses for her photo to be taken before she returns to grinding up the coffee beans with a large pestle and mortar, crouching on the floor with more agility than a 40 year old.

Sophina, Semilion (Louise Kenward, 2013)

Sophina (Louise Kenward, 2013)

The Glenmore plantation, a much larger establishment, has 400 hectares just of coffee and many more of cocoa, vanilla, rubber and fruit. Unlike the hill tribe in Northern Thailand, staff work here making very proiftable exports, although the plantation is under a shared ownership between the Government and Chinese (60:40). Top quality rubber makes $5 per kilogram and cocoa $4 (US).

First stages of the rubber processing (Louise Kenward, 2014)

Rubber processing, Glenmore, Java (Louise Kenward, 2014)

Cocoa beans (Louise Kenward, 2014)

Cocoa bean fermentation, Glenmore (Louise Kenward, 2014)

Other things I’ve learned that I didn’t know I didn’t know are that pineapples grow on the ground and pumpkins grow on trees (yes, they do).