El Joconal - Honduras 2008 Verified listing

El Joconal Coming from a low resources family, he and 4 brother were abandoned by their parents when Wilmer was six years old, so he had to start working at that age. his only help was his fifth grade teacher, who let him work one day a attend school the other. At age 14 he left his younger brothers with neighbors and went to La Lima City, and worked there fro 3 years, at age 17 he met the woman that now is his wife, and his life changed, her family show him about the coffee culture, so since then, with the help of his father in law he started his plantation, now he has a beautiful farm and has been able to put his own five kids to school, and also help his brothers, so yes, I you ask him what coffee means to him, it means his life. Wilmer 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 farms 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 doesnt have plague yet, its just a prevention. His harvest starts in January until the end of march 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 one hour . Using the less water possible from a protected water source coming directly from the mountain. Fermentation takes place in cement tanks, an average of 13-15 hours, under close supervision, depending on the weather and moisture. Then the coffee is taken into cement patios to dry . He says his success lays in picking only the red cherries, good farm management, drying and resting of his coffee for 40 days in his storage facility. 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 doesnt give enough yield for maintaining the necessary family income, but he is waiting for better days to come.