People
Finca El Paraiso from Ernedis Rodriguez is a beautiful farm about 12km East of the town of Gigante in Huila. The farm is perched exactly at the rim of a mountain with most of the fields facing west across the beautiful Magdalena river valley. The farm consists of a total of 14 hectares, of which 7 Ha. are part of a Natural Reserve. The other 7 Ha of coffee area, 18.000 Caturra trees and 14.000 Castillo trees. One of the most remarkable aspects is that Ernedis treats the farm as a company. Naming it “the company” during the conversation as well as maintaining a very well kept coffee area. Coffee farming is often a family business and with Ernedis that’s no different. He gets a lot of support from his wife and children. The family is included in the operations and his both daughters have been growing towards jobs (Quality Grader and Business Administration) within the local coffee sector. His best quality is 100% Caturra, but also the Castillo lots are scoring excellent. The coffee is processed at approx. 1804 m.a.s.l. in small solar dryers and sold as separate varieties. In the next few years, his volume of Caturra is expected to increase by about 5000 trees. All the small trees (see photos) will reach maturation and improve his position to finance the daily operations of the farm.
Product – CL200004
This lot surprised Ernedis himself. He applied the “Kenya” process to this coffee lot. That means he pulped the coffee, took out the pulp and then poured it back in.
Because the pulp has 60 to 70% of the sugars in the coffee bean and people are usually throwing it away.
“Then a colleague told me to go back and to put it on top of the coffee. Don’t stir it, but put a small net that separates the coffee and the pulp, So that the pulp drips into the coffee bean.”
So he did this experiment with a small lot of Castillo ( CL200004 ). When the coffee was tasted in Medellin, our colleagues called Ernedis and told him that Castillo surpassed the rate of Caturra, which is rare with him.
“Steven told me that the taste was something indescribable and very rich.“
So, well, he realized that it does work and he is now going to apply that technique to the other lots, as well. The Castillo prepared with this technique reached 86 while the Caturra 85.5.
Price
Did you know? Fairly priced coffee tastes better.
Planet
In the 2020 season he is preparing to invest in a “Lavador”, an Eco-pulper that uses a minimum amount of water to take of the pulp from the parchment. We see excellent results with these machines that use friction to remove pulp. Remarkable; Ernedis is one of the few farmers we see that recycles his coffee pulp correctly. Making sure the pulp is captured in a basin/pool without direct contact with the soil and using techniques to dry out and compost the organic matter.