El Salvador San Carlos Natural

Pomelo, black cherry, pralines

Farm: Finca Los Angeles

Owner: Los Naranjos

Region: Juayua, Sonsonate

Area: 23 ha

Elevation: 1350 m

Variety: Pacamara mixed

Processing: natural - 48 h anaerobic fermentation

SCA score: 87+

Importer: Falcon Coffee

Finca Los Angeles is a beautiful 23 manzana planted with only Pacamara farm situated in the Ahuachapán mountain range in the west of El Salvador. This farm is part of the Los Naranjos group headed by Sigfredo Corado a retired professor of Agronomy from the National School of Agriculture. The farm is part of the Renacer Program (Reborn in Spanish) which is a technical coffee field school and educational program for producers in the area to learn about better farm management practices. This program is funded by Raices (Roots) and supported by Catholic Relief Services in El Salvador.

The Technical field school which is led by Sigfredo with 6 field technicians to help small to medium producers in the are by focusing on best farm practises that are restorative for the land and soil as well as beneficial for the yield and quality of the coffee. The field schoo is based at the sister farm named Finca Noruega where there is a class held twice a month for the students. Throughout the year there are 3 modules and these look to focus on the 4 R's the program have developed for soil health.

Right Source.

Right Dose.

Right Place.

Right Moment.

This year they have 60 students and at Finca Noruega where the technical school is based the students work the test plots where they can implement the knowledge gained in class before applying it to their own farms. Finca Noruega is 43 Manzanas planted with a range of varieties from bourbon to gesha.

Los Angeles

This farm is planted only with pacamara and has been under Sigfredo for 10 years. Since he took on the farm they have used no herbicides to help replenish the soil and nutrients to give a good base for growing coffee once again. The farm is broken into 23 Manzanas with approximately 3000 trees in each section. The farm is beautifully divided with shade trees and wind barriers to protect the trees. The farm is managed on a day to day basis by some of the graduates from the technical school as well.

The coffee is selectively harvested and from here it then is taken to the wet mill and drying beds at Beneficio San Rafael located bwteen the two hills of El Pilon and Cerro Aguila at 1450 masl. In the harvest this football field becomes filled with drying beds for all the coffees that come from teh farms Los Angeles and Noruega. Here the Pacamara is washed and floated, after that the cherry are placed in sealed barrels to ferment for 48 hours, once the fermentation process is finished the coffee gets laid out on drying beds for between 22 - 25 days where it is moved every hour until ready.

This year Falcon also helped organise training in EL Salvador in conjunction with Catholic Relief Services by sending the head of the Micro lot program from the Aruco Cooperative in Honduras there for a week of training. Carlos Estevez helped them understand experimental processing and how to implement this as he had learnt from Simon Brown through Falcon. The results were very positive as Finca Los Angeles placed 5th and Finca Noruega 15th in their very first attempt with these new processes.