Meet Our Farmers
75 | La Arboleda
Alberto Montoya
Alberto grew up in the Urrao region and has many memories of working on coffee plantations. He eventually saved up enough money to purchase La Arboleda and began growing his own coffee. This proved to be a good investment as it is still home to Alberto and his wife of thirty-two years, Maria.
Aside from coffee, Alberto is also the president of the Junta de Accion Comunal in the region. As a leader, he is always trying to improve the livelihood of the community through development and projects such as roads and bridges. He wants all the families in his community to have access to opportunities and believes direct trade (near and far) can help everyone succeed.
78 | El Naranjo White Honey
Evelio Bados
El Naranjo began over 35 years ago as just a vision. Evelio invested in an untouched lot and worked very hard to clear the land and eventually plant coffee. He was working double duty during this time as he was also employed at other farms in order to provide for his family. After watching his dream come to fruition, Evelio hopes that his children will continue his legacy and produce coffee at El Naranjo in the future. For this reason, he continues to look for opportunities that will allow for sustainability and improved quality of life. It is important to him that his children and El Naranjo are successful for generations to come.
81 | El Eden - Natural
Francisco Giraldo
We are now in our fifth year working with Finca El Edén and are proud of what we have accomplished so far. Our strong relationship with Francisco helped us work through particularly challenging times for the last two years. A resurgence of activity among illegal paramilitary groups had a direct impact on the farmers and their families. With multiple displacements during the harvest, Francisco and his wife, Amparo, were forced to leave cherries in the fields, pack their belongings, and move the family to the nearest town in search of safety. These safety issues also created logistical challenges. We were unable to visit the farms in the region last year. We encounter chalenges and difficulty coordinating the shipment of the coffees from this region to the dry mill in Medellin.
Francisco continues to look towards the future. He wants to continue experimenting with natural process coffee as he had great success with this method two years ago (the recurring displacements prohibited him from processing any coffee this way during last harvest). This year we are excited to have his natural process coffee back again! It does not surprise us that Francisco remains so dedicated in the face of adversity. He has lived through many years of armed conflict and fell victim to a landmine himself in 2009. Lucky to escape with his life, he lost one eye as well as his sense of taste and smell. However, his dedication to his coffee never faltered. He grew up working with coffee alongside his father at El Edén and chose to continue the legacy after his father passed away.
84 | La Soledad
Ivan Montoya
A native of Urrao, Antioquia, Ivan began his coffee endeavors after inheriting a piece of land from his grandparents called La Soledad. Over the last 14 years, Ivan has developed about 3,000 Chiroso trees and credits the elevation of the farm, over 2,000 meters above sea level, as the secret ingredient to the high quality coffee he produces. In addition, the fertile soil allows for diversification as he also produces avocados and naranjilla. Ivan is certainly proud of the coffee he produces, but he is even more humbled that it allows him to provide for his aging grandparents.
85 | El Aguacate
Franklin Moreno
A true multigenerational farm, Finca El Aguacate is home to Franklin Moreno, his father, wife, daughters, granddaughter, and dog, Mono, who Franklin claims has been there longer than him. Together they have 5,200 coffee trees of various ages. Franklin's father focuses on the 1,200 Caturra trees and Franklin manages the 4,000 of the Chiroso varietal. He also has plans to plant more as it is critical to keep production consistent and some of the older trees will need pruning soon. The family supports themselves entirely off of their coffee production. Franklin hopes that his decision to focus on quality instead of quantity will pay off with a better price for his beans. He firmly believes that coffee should be de-pulped the same day it is picked and also changes the water in his fermentation tanks daily. When it comes to drying, however, he considers the process to be more of an art than a science. The weather plays an important role and you must adjust your technique accordingly.
86 | El Aguacate - Caturra
Franklin Moreno
A true multigenerational farm, Finca El Aguacate is home to Franklin Moreno, his father, wife, daughters, granddaughter, and dog, Mono, who Franklin claims has been there longer than him. Together they have 5,200 coffee trees of various ages. Franklin's father focuses on the 1,200 Caturra trees and Franklin manages the 4,000 of the Chiroso varietal. He also has plans to plant more as it is critical to keep production consistent and some of the older trees will need pruning soon. The family supports themselves entirely off of their coffee production. Franklin hopes that his decision to focus on quality instead of quantity will pay off with a better price for his beans. He firmly believes that coffee should be de-pulped the same day it is picked and also changes the water in his fermentation tanks daily. When it comes to drying, however, he considers the process to be more of an art than a science. The weather plays an important role and you must adjust your technique accordingly.
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