Brief story of La Esperanza, our organic experimental farm based in Antigua, Guatemala.

Finca La Esperanza in Antigua Guatemala was the first farm designed by Josué Morales and the team at Los Volcanes Coffee lead by Loyren Orozco. This is a farm in which everything is a study of something. When we first came to the farm in 2012 it was a sandbox, the soil was bare and nothing would grow, not even weeds. The coffee trees had been deeply affected by the leaf rust and it was the moment to renovate. The first decision was to choose what variety to plant. The Villa Sarchi came as an alternative to the traditional Borbón because it was rust tolerant, not resistant, which meant that it did not contain genetic elements that could limit aspects of taste. On the contrary, being a shorter growing shrub and not a producer of large volumes it promised the potential for quality.

The Organic Soil Program

In 2016 the organic soil program was implemented in the farm, reverting from conventional agriculture to one completely based on the principles of reading the metabolism of the plant and its surface in alignment with the life present in the soil.

We have faced many challenges over the years, including a frost in early 2017, and by mid 2019 a combination of factors triggered by the eruption of the Fuego Volcano in 2018. We hadn't taken into account the excess of phosphorus in our soil due to the twenty centimeters of ash that fell on the farm during the prior year. Excess phosphorus blocks the plant's ability for iron intake called iron chlorosis which limits all the vital functions of photosynthesis. Our plants got sick, severely sick giving room to the worst leaf rust outbreak we had since the farm was re planted, and with it all sorts of problems. 2020 was our worst harvest by volume and quality.

Josué and Loyren at La Esperanza

First Place

The challenge again allowed for lessons to be taken and with all the patience we proceeded to increase the dose of nutrients to the soil, to keep a heavy shade compromising productivity in order to allow the plant to regenerate its leaf cover and root structure. The farm was once again healthy by the end of the year, yielding a small high quality harvest in 2021, leaving with it completely healthy trees in producing capability. We had a high yielding harvest in 2022 that won several awards: 3rd place in the National Organic Coffee Competition and 1st place in the Antiguan Regional Competition.

La Esperanza is the farm that suffers the most in our program, and at the same time is the farm that received our most personal and detailed attention.

This is where the lessons are learned for anything that will be taught and implemented at any other of our farms, or of those producers that deliver to our programs.

Explore More About Our Experimental Farm