Neighbors & crops
FERNANDO CARDENAS
EL MOHO
Village: Anatoli, Cundinamarca
Altitude: 1600 M.A.S.L
Variety: Castillo
The Profile
Don Fernando Cardenas is 46 years old and has grown coffee all of his life. Raised by traditional coffee farmers, Don Fernando took what he learned from his parents and left home to start his own coffee farm: El Moho. Located in the municipality of La Mesa at 1600 meters, his 1,5-hectare farm is also used for chicken and pig breeding. Don Fernando is the father of four children, two sons, and two daughters, none of which help at the farm because they are currently studying. Don Fernando lives in a small house outside the farm named Villa Tatiana.
Before joining the Neighbors & Crops program, he used to sell his coffee parchment at the local cooperative of Cachipay (the nearest town). During this time Don Fernando found most difficulties in finding labor because it is very challenging to find reliable coffee pickers in the region. He has found both monetary and non-monetary benefits from working with us, specifically with the help of pickers, processing, and drying. We’re glad to help in any way we can, and hope to continue working together for many harvests to come!
Key Facts
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Proccesing Methods
Lactic
This kind of fermentation is classified as ‘Anaerobic’ as oxygen has minimal interaction with the cherry. Once the cherries arrive at the mill, they are hand sorted and placed in sealed tanks. With no oxygen involved, bacteria feed on carbohydrates present in the mucilage favoring a higher concentration of Lactic Acid, creating a unique profile of the resulting cup.
Honey
The Honey Process begins with a pre-fermentation stage of 45 hours at the wet mill. From here the cherries will start the de-pulping stage, passing through three stages of quality control before removing a percentage of the skin. While the drying stage, coffee will be placed in African-style raised beds for over 15 days. Due to the levels of sugar and moisture, the first days will be crucial to avoid microbial activity prolongation. Finally parchment coffee will pass through the mechanical drying machines to end up the drying process.
Mixed
This method involves a combination of stages found in lactic and acetic processing methods. First, all hand-sorted cherries will go through a short pre-fermentation step. Similar to lactic processing, the cherries are placed in airtight fermentation tanks with limited oxygen. Once removed from the tanks, we pass them through three levels of quality control before having the skin removed by a pulper machine. From there, we leave the beans resting in the fermentation tanks to undergo an acetic fermentation, agitating them from time to time. Once the process is completed, the beans are transferred to African-style raised beds to begin the drying phase.
Our Mixed Fermentation Processing produces a very balanced cup profile with medium to heavy body.
Bio-Innovation
Through the Bioinnovation process, La Palma & El Tucán honors the main principles of organic farming. They first capture and reproduce microorganisms found in their farm’s beautiful forests, to create their own fermentation substrate. Then, they mix this substrate with perfectly ripen geisha cherries, in a clay pot for 100 hours. This combination allows them to create a sustainable closed cycle. After the fermentation, they remove the leftovers and reuse them as compost.
If you wish to request additional information about the processing of your microlot, such as fermentation time or type of drying, please let us know by filling this form.
We will get back to you soon with detailed information.
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