Fresh Cup

MAY 2014

Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.

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66 Fresh Cup Magazine | freshcup.com EXPERIMENTS WITH TRADITION elected president and tasked with giv- ing his colleagues a stronger voice at the national level. He began this year accompanying a government official to the San Miguel region to survey farms damaged by the late December erup- tion of Chaparrastique, a volcano in the east. While most of the crop had been harvested, considering the rise of rust fungus, it is another natural disaster that will only further exacerbate the nation's production woes. Sergio's own farm grows paca- mara, bourbon, and yellow caturra, all of which can produce as much as 500 pounds per acre, according to PROCAFE. (That rate of yield assumes perfect growing conditions, healthy trees, and proper grooming.) Currently, the rust problem has El Salvador look- ing at 165 pounds per acre. Los Planes expects just 4,000 pounds across thir- ty-five acres. This does not count the possible contribution from the fledg- ling El Pimiento, from which Nena aims to collect some 500 pounds before the harvest is finished. Nena has no financial ownership of the experimental lot; however, her income, along with that of her crew, will increase with the yield produced every harvest. From the outset Monika insisted El Pimiento be a job for women so that they may gain this economic advantage. Additionally, she viewed the micro-lot as a "garden requiring atten- tion to detail." Set aside whether or not women are more meticulous than men, Nena's crew is proving its coffee-grow- ing mettle several times over. "In the beginning," Nena recalls, "the men would say, 'No, Nena cannot do it.' I told them, 'No, I can do it.'" Only three years old, the cypress- shaded forest lot is coming to frui- tion, and it has indeed taken special attention to reach this point. The land itself is no cakewalk. Much of Finca Los Planes is on clay soil, and El Pimiento's area is riddled with stones. To accommodate the seedlings and make sufficient rooting space, the women had to dig out two-foot cubes of earth for each tree, replacing it with black soil and compost. El Pimiento uses a unique grow- ing method originating in Guatemala and disseminated throughout Central America. Nena and her crew tie the tops of two-year-old coffee trees to stakes anchored in the ground so the stalks pitch at forty-five degrees, spawning skyward shoots that will fruit for two seasons apiece. The base of each plant is no closer than nine feet to another, affording room to stretch out. Approaching maturity the trees grow near parallel to the ground, reminiscent of grapevines. The look provides its name: agobia parras, bur- dened vines. The result is more cher- ries and more nutrients left in the soil. "Our parents and grandparents used this parra system because it gave good "The men would say, 'No, Nena cannot do it.' I told them, 'No, I can do it.'" Clockwise from top left: Isabel Ticas with El PimientoÕs manager Nena Hernandez; PTÕs Jeff Taylor inspecting a dry process on the patios adjacent to Finca Los Planes; separating parchment from coffee bean for moisture detection and sample roasting; three-year-old bourbon tree at El Pimiento, tied down in the agobio parra style; blind cupping to sample the first of the 2013-2014 harvest. May14_magazine.indd 66 4/18/14 10:46 AM

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