Visiting a local coffee farmer

Since I'm in the coffee triangle, Colombia's main coffee region, many farmers offer a tour through their production. Colombia is the third biggest producer of coffee in the world and the planting and harvesting is done by hand due to its hilly landscape. Imagine the work!

One farmer who offers tours is close, a 45 minute walk from Salento which gave beautiful views over the landscape.

I found this on the way.

Sometimes there are cows, who have no idea about the sheer bliss of their environment, sometimes small farms. It's super idyllic.

Planting coffee beans is pretty easy - dig a whole 3 cm deep, put the bean inside and wait 2 years.

These are the fruits, they are ripe when they turn red. The bean is inside, it's slimy and sweet.

The plantation looks more like a jungle. There are plenty of other fruits, such as bananas, mangoes, limes and more. These fruits are given to the workers as food. The biodiversity also helps a lot against parasites since it's not a monoculture. The soil itself stays healthy this way as well.

The waste product is put back on the field as fertilizer.

Admittedly, this place didn't look very clean but I'm sure it's all good here 😅

The majority of the farms export the beans dried, and 'raw' as the whole bean. This farm, however, only exports them roasted, either the whole bean or ground.

I will spare you a detailed description of the production of each type, I'm sure there are enough Wikipedia entries about it 🤣

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the coffee tasting itself, so you have to use your imagination. The coffee was served in the traditional Colombian way: as filter coffee. The filter is made out of cotton and basically looks like an old sock, but the coffee itself tasted good. It was very mild with a sour taste.

A German who came by was so nice to give me a lift back to the hostel, so I had some spare time which I invested in this update since I didn't keep you guys so well updated recently (also due to the lack of activities but whatever).

Tomorrow I'll probably go to see the national park, you might get a new update by then!

See you soon, love and peace,

Laurin