86.10

Las Manos Jose is been working with coffee since in 1980 his father started the farm, he started with the Typica variety and in 1993 was Jose Misael that started with Pacas, trying to get better yields changed for the Pacas Variety. He works and lives of his coffee land and production. that farm has educated 3 children, Joses wife, santos, is the one actually in charge of quality control, doing a great job. This farm has been worked personally and is the economic source, for his family of five members, he has 2 permanent employees and 30 temporary during harvest. Jose fertilizes once a year in the month of may , during the rainy season, He does his farms 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 January 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 with them immediately after picking, to the wet mill, . Using the less water possible from a protected water source coming directly from the mountain. His fermentations are done in cement tanks for and average of 12 hours, under permanent supervision, depending on weather and moisture conditions. Then the coffee is washed and taken into cement patios to dry , in the exporters patios. It takes Jose at least one hour by horse and another 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, 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.