The Roaster, the teacher

I am a big fan of a certain type of education. I am not sure of the correct terminology for this style of learning, but am enthralled with the option and the benefit that is evident because of it. Watching others for minutes/ hours/ days/ months/ years- do something that can't be learned without experience. I term this apprentice learning, which I would assume to be a loose description.

Here recently I, and a couple equally as worthy peers, have been given the responsibility of taking over the roasting program for Blackbird Coffee in Milledgeville , Georgia, as well as our sister store in Dublin, Georgia on a small batch roaster. This coffee shop sits just a little under a block away from Georgia College and State University as well as sitting in the center of Milledgeville's downtown, to say that we stay pretty busy is an understatement.

A little back story:
In December, our Roastmaster, Don Harris, went for a two week vacation, and was planning on returning after the new year. After he and his wife returned, she was in a car accident the following week that handicapped her for a bit and he had to step down from roasting for an indefinite amount of time.
It is now the middle of march, and we have been roasting now for roughly 3 months time.

Back to present: apprentice roasting.
I had been watching and talking to Don for the larger portion of the time that had been working at Blackbird, and soaking up every moment I could of his experience as a roaster. None of that could have prepared us for taking over the entire roasting program.

I should stop here to say that this is not a note on being overwhelmed, rather, it is something that has brought a new challenge to my life. I work a lot...., but I love what I do. It has been and still remains, an intimidating and entertaining experience from the moment we took over up until the moment before and during each time we roast. We have experienced a massive exhaust fire, and learned how to put it out. We have had the notes of all of Don's past roasts to read from, and have had the ability to meet some very experienced peers in our industry to learn from.

I guess you could call this a sort of experiential learning. When we started roasting we simply followed the directions that Don had been following, and as time has progressed we have started to develop our own style, with each roast. Slowly adjusting in some areas, working hard to maintain in others and learning new things as we go each time. As I stated early on, this is the way that I love to learn, under the constant tutelage of an experienced teacher. So far I have found this to be my favorite of all the tutors that I have had. The funny thing is the description of the unnamed teacher. Its name is Ambex, and it is the 33lb roaster itself. Without this device I would not be able to do what I do, but every time I visit with the massive thing, I am taken aback buy its sheer power and ability. This may seem to end cheesy, but this machine is what I have learned the most from, listening to it's every utterance, and noting every change, to the best of my ability. The roaster has been my master educator for the past three months, and from the looks of things, will remain one of the most cherished learning experiences that I have or will ever have had.

I apologize for the rather scatter brained nature of this post but, this thought kind of overwhelmed me and I just wanted to "jot" it down.

Thank you, if you read.