El Plan Lot. No1

This farm was founded in 1950 by Mr. Constantino Madrid with an area of 2.1 hectares, with the Bourbon variety, back in those days, they did the process naturally, that means they dry the cherries and then husked them in wood mortars to be sold in Santa Barbara, transported by mules to market.Franlin is the grandson of Don Constantino, father of Esteban, who actually also cultivates the same land. He works and lives of his coffee land and production. This farm has been worked personally and is the economic source, for his family of four members, he has 8 permanent employees and 50 temporary during harvest.

Franklin fertilizes twice a year in the months of may and august , He likes to incorporate pulp as fertilizer besides the coffee formula. He does his farm's 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 if he does not have any at the farm, jus as a precaution. His harvest starts in february until the end of may sometimes, collecting only the red cherries, his family members are the ones that do the picking along with people from the community. then he moves his crop by car, 15 minutes, to the wet mill, . Using the less water possible from a protected water source coming directly from the mountain. He does use a mecahnical ucilage removal and a water efficient wet mill.

Then the coffee is washed and taken into cement patios to dry , It takes Franklin at least one hour to transport by pick up truck, his coffee to the nearest facility or exporter. He says his success lays in picking only the red cherries, training the pickers and other workers, installment of signs in the farm to avoid pollution and damages to persons and animals and plants, and applying the correct process for milling. He and his family and workers are aware of the protection of the environment and give the proper process to pulp and residue waters. They are involved in wood producing trees projects, specially mahogany. Due to the recently past coffee prices crisis, has stopped them in adopting coffee quality projects.