So, as you know, Coffee is a crop and as such adheres to growth & harvest cycles. Each region is different. Nicaragua (Selva Negra) is typically October through March with new crop landing in US ports throughout the summer.
Before anything can happen, though, the coffee needs to be picked.
As Coffee Tree blooms give way to Coffee Cherries, that fruit will begin to ripen, changing color from green to a dark red. Specific lots (aka sections) are picked each day until the entire farm has been picked through. In Selva Negra’s case, these sections will be picked up to 7 (!!!) times until all the ripe cherries have been picked, plucked, sorted through, what have you. This can take every bit of the 5 months of harvest time on a farm this size and specialization. This is specialty coffee folks!
Working from 6am to 2pm, a good Picker can manage 6-9 baskets a day (weighing around, oh, 30-40 pounds). I, however, could have used some practice.