8 am – Breakfast on the farm.  Very foggy this morning.

9 am – Carlos showed me the processing equipment, patio, nursery and warehouse.  Met Adrian, Eldelfo and Sergio who work for Carlos and his mom.

10 am – Set off to Hike the largest area of coffee trees.  Adrian was our guide.  Calibrated a barometric altimeter at the house at 1600m.  Essentially, this area of trees starts at the house and wraps down the mountain and then back up the other side.  Stopped truck at 1540m and started hike.  This is nothing like I imagined.  It’s a dense forest on the side of a mountain with coffee trees everywhere.  This is no MN corn field!  Primarily Caturra and Bourbon.  Found Yellow Bourbon at 1522m, 1500m and 1400m.  Large Bourbon patch at 1488m.  Patch of Maragogype at 1506m & 1545m.  1364m (bottom) to 1450m (on otherside of mountain) is Caturra and Bourbon. A few Catimor at 1380m.  1450m to 1567m is largely Caturra.

3 pm – Back on the farm.  Talked through process.  Pickers are mostly indigenous who come during harvest.  They are paid per box, which holds 100 pounds of cherries.  Because of the terrain, they pick an area and then come out to the road, where the coffee is picked up by a truck and driven back to the farm.  At the farm, the cherries are then processed through pergamino (dried parchment skin still on).  Victor is in charge of the washing and drying of the coffee. They have two pulpers, two fermentation tanks, a washing tank and channel and a large concrete patio.  They also have a three-bed mechanical dryer if needed.

5 pm – Today is payday at the farm.  Workers are paid every two weeks.  They are showing up to be paid tonight.  Each worker is called up to discuss their production and then get paid.  Bruno oversees the trees and harvest.  He has detailed notes on each picker and spends several minutes talking with each picker before they are paid.  As the group (30+) waits, Carlos and I pulled out a Gene Cafe home roaster I brought with for the farm.  With the help of many, we shelled enough pergamino for 200 grams of green coffee.  We then roasted it in front of them.  We ground it on a Virtuoso (yes, without letting it rest), and made 2 – 8 cup press pots of their coffee and served it up to everyone (even kids).  It was a great connection and we all had a lot of fun with it.

Foggy Palmira

Yellow Bourbon Tree

Road to Palmira (upper right)

Charlotte’s Caturra

Roasting

Drinking

MANY MORE PICTURES AT

www.flickr.com/photos/bullruncoffee/sets/72157623440318831/

Author: Dan