Finca El Mirador
£0.03 / Pricing
COLOMBIA
Octavio Rueda
White nectarine, raspberry, juicy acidity, medium body, medium roast
About
We have known Octavio Rueda and his family for well over a decade and have seen his farm develop over that time and learnt so much from him about coffee growing. There are many challenges in coffee; we have discussed previously the Roya or Coffee Rust Disease problem (a fungus which attacks the leaves of the trees limiting the amount of photosynthesis and sometimes killing the tree) which has been causing many problems around the coffee growing regions. In Octavio's words, Roya had him against the ropes in the last couple of years, and he has had to be vigilant and experimental with the controls he has been using. In addition to Roya, there is also difficulty getting enough people to help pick the coffee during the harvest season in this part of Huila. Coffee, like most fruit production, requires harvesting once a year and is often done by migrant labour who specialise in this kind of work, travelling through the coffee areas of Colombia. Travel over the last few years has been exceptionally difficult and luckily El Mirador is not a big farm, so Octavio and his family can get through the picking with some local help. It makes for heavy work and long days to get the cherry picked and then processed carefully. This year, Octavio has completed construction of a new drying patio with a polycarbonate roof. This extends the area in which he can dry coffee after pulping and fermentation and will help improve this stage of the processing.