Date visited: 28 Apr 2016
Farmer (Caficultor): Horta and Lucilia Medina – La Piramide Contributor
On his farm, he has been experimenting with different fermentation times. We saw the raised beds drying the Caturra which were being used as an experiment of a fermentation time of only 18hrs. It was collected from 1950 masl.
The pickers pick coffee during the day and then leave the cherries in the bin until de-pulping. Typically this is done at 12:00 and 18:00
Cherries in the bin have been there since 12:00 now 16:25.
While we were there Caravela explained the advantages of using a floating tank. Thank de-pulper is under the tank but the valve is closed. The fill the tank with water which then results in the unripe, overripe and damaged beans floating. These are then skimmed off the top to be processed as a Commidty Grade coffee so that it does not affect the good coffees that are ripe and ready and sink.
Video of floating tank, and removal of bad cherries. After de-pulping the de-pulped beans are washed.
His wife has her own farm, that is part of the La Piramide taste profile blend and has RFA certification. Her farm has 2000 Caturra trees, 1000 Bourbon and 2000 heritage yellow bourbon trees and 2 hectares is Rain-forest. They process all coffee at Pedreros. They have achieved one star in the Caravela program and are very proud to have:
Met son and son in law. He has moved back to the farm after trying the army (there is a lot of army everywhere in Colombia) and has decided there is more potential as a farmer in a market recognizing quality.
We asked him what does he think about people drinking coffee far from the home it is picked and processed?
He said he loves that the coffee is convincing people to visit his farm and he appreciates that people come to the farm and give feed back. He wants to work harder to improve the coffee.
He has realized that trying to improve quality each year to get rewarded for caring it exited him to see the increased interest from the rest of the world and this translates to the him and his pocket.They have found that the higher coffee grows, especially Caturra, the higher the cupping score. Also to improve cup quality they are planning to plant trees to have shade grown coffee.
Also grow plantain (a very popular long relative to the banana, that they eat at every meal), corn and sugar cane.
The inherited their farms, and hope to keep it in the family.
We asked them what their typically work day is? The told us they wake up at 5am then have some coffee then go and check the farm. Wife wakes up early and goes to bed late, she makes the coffee and gets everything ready in the morning and at night.
I asked about their children. They have six sons and want the children to study but not to loose their roots. They are 4th generation coffee people.
Great people and once again very hospitable.
Washing tank that is used 3 times typically to wash the coffee
