Return to the Table of Gods

ARTICLES

Un gusto muy especial 21 - 27 de agosto de 2006	Es hora de servir café del mejor Kendom Mc Donald - 15 de abril de 2006
Un lujo que se puede dar Kendon Mc Donald - 7 de enero de 2006	Café especial orgánico de Colombia ahora disponible en Houston´s Agosto 11 de 2005
Café producido en el Cañón del Chicamocha seduce el parque de Animal Kindom (Disney) Marzo 13 de 2005	Oswaldo Acevedo, owner of colombian coffee farm Seattle, 1995
Return to the Table of Gods Alex Mason - Oct-2004	Back to the Land Waitrose, Autumn 2004
*Una "tasa" con mucho gourmet* *Dora Montero* - Mayo 2004	Coffee culture meets viticulture *Kate LaPoint* - 2004
Waitrose Kate LaPoint - 2003	Coffee Fest Seattle Kate LaPoint - 2003
Café Mesa de los Santos funds ongoing biological study Kate LaPoint - 2003	President Uribe of Colombia visits Kate LaPoint - 2003
Shade brightens grim coffee picture Steven Ambrus - Aug 2003	For the Birds on Coffee Farm Fresh Cup Magazine - Sept 2003
El viajero Cotelco Vivir y Viajar - Mayo de 2003	*Con aroma especial* *Cambio* - Junio 2003
A model Farm *Kate LaPoint* - Mar 2003	Gourmet en alza: *La nota económica* - Febrero 2003
*Mesa de los Santos revisited* *John Cossette* - January 17/2003	Full of Beans *Ibon Villelabeitia*- Aug 13/2002
Report written by John Cosette John Cossette - Oct. 1999	*Latin American Enviromental Business Competition* Rio de Janeiro - Sept. 24-26/2000

Return to the Table of the Gods
Alex Mason-Finca Mesa de los Santos-Bucaramanga, Colombia
October 2004

Having had the experience of employment as a panadero (baker) and working the 2 am to 10 am shift as well as a delivery driver punching the clock at 5 am, I have seen many a sunrise with hours of work already logged. But the daybreak on a finca is different. Sunrise breathes new life into the farm. It is when the birds have chorus rehearsal, the roosters lay claim on the sun, and a new day full of duties begins.

I awoke to such a morning on this magnificent 5,100 foot plateau known as Mesa de Los Santos. It felt as if all 117 species of warblers that visit the finca were welcoming me. Labor, life, and love for this special farm were already well under way as I enjoyed quite possibly the best garbanzo and poultry tamale that I’ve ever eaten in my life (sorry grandma). Miriam Mendoza, who has spent forty years on the farm, is the main hacienda keeper and a chef extraordinaire. Think French country cuisine with ingredients whose freshness could be measured in hours not days. Miriam informed me as my groggy jetlagged head received fantastic transmissions from my palate that people would soon arrive to tend to us. It was 7 am (5 am West Coast time) and the finca outside the hacienda’s walls was up and running full-bore.

Fermin Alba, the finca’s head administrator and resident for the last twenty years, his administrative assistant and niece Fernanda Riano, soon arrived and informed me that we would be taking a hike around the finca. It was impossible for me to believe that I wasn’t taking their attention away from more pressing tasks. I pleaded just to tag along as an observer so as to not burden them since it was evident from the squelch of the walkietalkies that they were very busy farmers.

Fermin and yours truly at the nursery.

After assurances from Fermin and Fernanda that anything that needed tending to could be accomplished in my presence and that walking the farm was a necessary part of their responsibilities; we embarked on a remarkable day in the life of a coffee farmer.

Eighty of the hundred permanent workers that Mesa de Los Santos employs reside on the farm. There are five residential dormitories that accommodate, depending on size, between fourteen to twenty-two men. These dormitories make up the teams of laborers that perform the various jobs that the finca needs completed.

The team supervisors, who are chosen for demonstrating responsibility in following instruction, job completion, and team coordination, also receive the benefits of having their families reside with them at the dormitory. Dormitory families are charged with providing each of the residents with a clothes washing area, a clean community area, and three meals a day with the main meal being at midday. The family that oversees and provides these services at each dormitory also must tend to a parcel of land for procurement of food staples that will be used as provisions for the dormitory residents.

One of the finca’s residential dormitories.

Health care is paid for by Mesa de Los Santos for all workers and their families with the health clinic approximately half an hour away from the finca.

The land on which a kindergarten through twelfth grade school is built was donated by the finca to the Los Santos municipality in 1964. The children of the permanent workers on the farm attend the school which is located just outside of the grounds of the farm.

The schools latest addition which houses the computer lab.

This proximity lends itself to a very keen sense of community that the teachers and students feel for the finca and that also attracts the plateau’s best and brightest students because of the high-quality of education provided. The welcome we received at the school demonstrated genuine appreciation by the school’s administrators of the finca’s efforts to be a consistent supporter of the school’s betterment.

Still many basic necessities are lacking for this model school such as a school-wide public announcement system, microscopes for the science lab, and the dream of a permanent English language lab.

One of the highlights of my visit was learning how much effort it takes to bring the forest back to the Mesa. The newest parcel to be converted is a 1.5 hectare plot that has 6,880 typica coffee trees, 405 shade trees and 384 banana trees. This plot will bear cherry in approximately three years but will not give substantial cherry until year five.

Two of the 64 varieties in the experimental plot.

I thoroughly enjoyed the short time I spent with Jose Antonio Martinez. He is charged with cupping each bag of parchment for primary defects and to determine if it is ready for reposo (resting).

He must check the humidity and when it falls between 11%-11.5% then transfer it to the climate control resting room. Jose also must keep all varietals separate. Similar varietal parchment is blended to maintain the distinct Café Mesa de Los Santos taste profile. He prepared a cupping for our short visit which included: eight month rested Bourbon, Typica, Colombiana, Caturra, and unrested Bourbon. The intensity of the acidity on the rested Bourbon was amazing! All of the lots had their merits and I quickly acquired admiration for Jose Antonio’s job requirements.

Full-time QC
is Jose Antonio Martinez’s job.

Restoring nature isn’t where one will find instant gratification. However Don Oswaldo Acevedo and his extremely talented staff showed me that with consistency, vision, and determination, one very special organic finca is bringing the forest back to the Mesa. One hectare at a time.