This morning we loaded ourselves into three four wheel drive vehicles and headed towards the mountains where our coffee farmers live. I’m sure for many of us this trip was the first time four wheel drive was REALLY needed. It also gave us an even greater understanding of the meaning of high altitude shade grown organic coffee.
Juan
After about a 2 hour drive up the mountain we stopped at the farm of Juan. Juan was 77 years old and had been farming his 10 hectares of land for many years. He had several homes on his farm where his two daughters lived with their husbands and his son lived in the city. Since the coffee cherry harvest had recently finished, Juan was able to show us some seeds he was germinating for next year’s harvest. It will take about 18months, once these germinate before Juan can harvest the cherries from them.
We left Juan’s farm and met two other wonderful coffee growers and learned what is involved in organic coffee growing, how to prune the coffee trees, the benefit of mixing your your crop with other produce and much more.
Jaouquim & Paulino
