Coffee is harvested by hand from October through February. Hand selecting the red fruit ensures that only the ripest tastiest beans are harvested. Pickers belt a basket to their waists freeing both hands to work the branches. Traditionally, stay-at-home mothers and teenagers on school vacation picked much of the coffee in Costa Rica. However, in many places this tradition is being replaced by migrant workers from Nicaragua and Panama who depend upon the Costa Rican coffee harvest for their economic survival. Previous | Beginning | Next