Rio Helado

Manuel bought the farm in 1988, out of his own effort, its located in a natural reserve area, with very favorable conditions of weather and climate, and he has expanded. Of his family of two kids, he has a teenage son that's currently in high school, and owns and works 1.4 hectares of farm of his own.

Manuel fertilizes twice a year in the months of June and September , He likes to incorporate pulp as fertilizer besides the coffee formula. He does his farm's weed control by hand, applies tree pruning, with selective and sanitary purposes, also regulates shade. He does a very active sampling for plagues and pest, even that he doesn't have plague yet, its just a prevention. His harvest starts in November until the end of April sometimes, collecting only the red cherries, his pickers do the picking along with people from the community. then he moves his crop by car to wet mill, taking him approximately ten minutes . Using the less water possible from a protected water source coming from a near by stream. Fermentation takes place in cement tanks, an average of 12 hours, under close supervision, depending on the weather and moisture.

Then the coffee is taken into cement patios to dry .it takes him about 30 minutes to take by truck his coffee to the nearest exporter. He says his success lays in picking only the red cherries, good farm management, drying in patios and screens. He and his family and workers are aware of the protection of the environment and give the proper process to pulp and residue waters. Actually coffee production doesn't give enough yield for maintaining the necessary family income, but he is waiting for better days to come. This also affects the workers because he is not able to give them much paid work.