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COURTESY OF GOOD LAND ORGANICS and seasonal fruit grown on the farm), and an invitation to bring your own lunch and dine by the koi pond. The tours, which go for $40, also allow coffee enthusiasts to taste a cherry plucked off a coffee tree. "We show them all the way from seed to harvest to roast to cup," says Ruskey. "Our original business model was to model [the farm] after a Kona coffee tour or a Santa Ynez wine tour. People feel like they're in the tropics. They can see the coffee, smell it and taste it." Ruskey is starting to introduce the industry to his operation. Staffers of the SCAA recently visited Good Land Organics, taking a tour and holding a board meeting on-site. In another industry occurrence, Southern California roaster-retailer Tierra Mia Coffee shut its doors for a day to take a company field trip to Good Lands so that employees could gain a rich understanding of coffee harvesting. It's an example of how the California growing project allows coffee pros to take a firsthand look at production without having to travel to distant lands. IN THE FUTURE Ruskey says he aims to do more than just grow great coffee. He wants to inspire other California farmers to join him, and he thinks avocado growers are a particularly ripe group. There are about 35,000 acres of California land currently dedicated to avocado production, which means there are plenty of spots where coffee plants could be added and shaded. "We need a community collaboration to really get somewhere," he says. "I'd like to see other avocado growers diversify." He notes he has already brought a few "farmer friends" on board. Collectively they've planted 1,000 additional coffee trees that are in different stages of growth and are scattered throughout different regions of California—the spread-out nature of the plantings will help to test how different climates influence the coffee crops. By spring, Ruskey wants to double the size of his own farm's coffee presence and have 1,000 trees growing. He also hopes to boost online sales, and in five years he'd like to be a wholesaler. "Right now we're proving that we have a good cup of coffee," he says. "I'm happy where we are right now with the quality. We've gotten where we are in a short period of time." freshcup.com February 2013 39