Growing Coffee

The estate is planted with the fine caturra and catuai varieties of Arabica coffee under nitrogen-fixing flame trees. These trees enrich the soil with nitrogen and shade the coffee. Their beautiful red-orange flowers feed large numbers of hummingbirds, while their fruits feed dozens of other species of birds. The leaves provide fertilizer for the coffee and the roots maintain the fertility of the soil.

Between the coffee plants, the ground is covered with many other kinds of plants, pruned by hand and trimmed by sheep. This ground cover ensures that the soil is soft, aerated, and protected from erosion. Insects and earthworms also aerate the soil. The soil is enriched with organic fertilizer made from coffee pulp from the previous year’s crop mixed with ashes from the drying kilns, sawdust and chicken manure, and then processed by earthworms.

The coffee leaves are fertilized with liquid produced by earthworms, while cow manure residue serves as a natural pesticide. The forest surrounding the plantations hosts dozens of species of parasitic wasps and flies that destroy plant pests, while the large bird population living in the coffee groves and forests feeds off insects and other small animals. The coffee groves constitute a lively, healthy ecosystem.