Restaurant Profile

By Vicki Wood

Brining the world of coffee to the Lake

Coffee shops abound these days around the Lake area. There are many outstanding brews available in virtually every town. But one company brings a world view to the steaming cup one warms up and starts the day with. Firefly Valley Farms Coffee Roasters, along the banks of the Little Niangua River in Roach, has made it a mission to partner with those who can benefit. While lifting one’s daily cup, the money spent on that cup can support those beyond our microworld. Most are becoming familiar with the term “fair trade” thanks to import shops specializing in products from third world countries that help stimulate very poor economies. Usually handcrafted, these products are often made by women trying to simply feed their families and put forth intensive labor to profit very little money. Firefly Coffee sources their beans from such countries as Ethiopia, Uganda, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Columbia, Sumatra, Guatemala, India, and Tanzania. The poorest countries where fairtrade coffee beans are grown and harvested make the best coffee on which we as Americans spend millions of dollars each. Dax and Stephanie Beaman began Firefly Valley Farms Coffee Roasters by hitting the road at local farmers markets and pop-up cafes around the Lake of the Ozarks last year. The Roach couple soon expanded into a wholesale business offering their fresh locally roasted fair-trade beans to other coffee shops. Firefly Valley Farms Coffee also delivers whole bean or ground bags of the rich product to individual customers through their website at: www.fireflyvalleyfarms.com along with candied chocolate beans, flavoring syrups, and chai and smoothie mixes. Dax purchased a digital coffee bean roaster this summer and demonstrated the cylinder-shaped machine to customers at the Roach Farm Market on Sunday afternoons. The roaster is impressive with a computer screen showing in real time the varying degrees of roasting each batch of beans goes through. The aroma wafting over the market entices customers who quickly lined up to sample a cup. The Beaman’s are small farmers, raising bees for honey, fresh farm eggs, and fruit orchards at their home in Roach. Their minds are always on local and fresh, while supporting a greater good for third world countries; connecting hearts and minds to those doing the very same thing, supporting their families. Things you should know about fair trade beans from Firefly Valley Farms Coffee Roasters: The 2016/2017 harvest saw their first opportunity to source a Women Coffee Producer lot from this group whose 270-farmer membership includes 77 women. Now we are able to buy several containers from the women as well as the mixed group.

In addition to the program premiums these women receive for this lot, “Cooperativa RAOS” has many active and educational support programs open to all members through the development of training farms, as well as integrated farm-management programs and organic-farming support to all members, including the female growers. It’s a Honduran farming cooperative that supports the county’s farmers.

To learn more: https://www.fireflyvalleyfarms.com.