El Roblar - Honduras 2013 Verified listing

El Roblar farm is located in La Peñita community in the municipality of Sebastian, Department of Comayagua. It has an altitude of 1550 meters above sea level and is located 20 km from the La Paz city.

I began to produce coffee 26 years ago when I was 20 years old. First I grew corn, bean and other vegetables but it was unprofitable because the market is so variable. My father produced coffee and he sold his coffee in the markets of San Pedro Tutule and La Paz city. Hi helped I to begin to produce coffee and it is my mean economic income. Coffee allowed me built my house and give education to my child, also I could buy a little truck for my job. We have four daughters and three sons.  Besides my family almost 15 – 20 families are benefited by our farm. During the harvest season we hire these families to collect the cherries, milling, washing and drying the coffee.

What natural resources conservation practices do you follow in the farm?
1 – I have made soil conservation with live barriers.
2 – Pulp is decomposed and applied in the farm as organic fertilizer.

What is the secret for winning this competition (describe the preparation process of the competing lot)?
I think my secret is collect the cherries ripe, also the milling process must be do the same day and finally use solar driers to dry the coffee avoiding contaminate the coffee.  It is an indescribable sense, when I heard my name in the award ceremony I exploited of happiness, is the best thing happened me as coffee producer.

It is a motivation to keep us producing coffee, because is a good way to sell my coffee.  It is my first time as participant in COE and hope keep participating in the future.