El Alba

Alba bought the farm seven years ago, but the farm`s age is 20 years. she gives priority to employ mostly women and strongly enforces educoation for children and adults. Her farm is actually a learning center base for the "teacher at home" government program. The permanent employees have social security and can access loans if needed. That farm has 2 permannent workers and up to 10 in harvest season.

Alba fertilizes twice a year , usin mostly lombricompost and bocashi. She does her farm's weed control by hand, applies tree pruning, with selective and sanitary purposes, also regulates shade.She does a very active sampling for plagues and pest,and uses yhe Integrated method of control for plagues. Her harvest starts in january until the end of April sometimes, collecting only the red cherries, her pickers do the picking along with people from the community. then he moves her crop using the pickers to wet mill, taking her approximately 20 minutes . The pulper work without water, so the process is 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 118-20 hours, under close supervision, depending on the weather and moisture.

Then the coffee is taken into cement patios to dry the excess water, and the is placed into solar dryers, the green house type. She moves her coffe every 3 days, she rents a pick up truck, to the nearest exporter. She says her success lays in picking only the red cherries, having field days with her worker to trainings in several useful subjects, she gives economic incentives to them also, and alway takes samples to a cupping lab to know how her coffee is turnig out.. She and her 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, This also affects the workers because he is not able to give them much paid work.