Overview

Nombre de Dios farm is located at the highlands of Alotepec-Metapan Mountain Range at some 1,500 meters above sea level, only 30 minutes from Metapan city. The history of this farm goes back to the early twentieth century, when Samuel Luna had a vision for progress and development for the Metapan Area. Nombre de Dios San Juan, a fraction of the original “Hacienda San Miguel Ingenio y El Pinar”, is a legacy planted by her grandfather, Juan Ramon Calderon in the 60’s. Since 2002, Nombre de Dios is run by Maria Elena and her two sisters, fourth generation coffee growers; who foresaw an opportunity for the coffee industry despite the world coffee crisis.
All three sisters’ families work as a team. Maria Elena’s administrative work is supported by her husband Salvador, who leads the cultural practices at the farms. She also relies on her two sons. Javier, her older soon is deeply involved in the business plan for Nombre de Dios and after graduate from Zamorano Agriculture University; he has been working in diversification and coffee quality improvement.
Cultural practices such as pruning, weed control and fertilization after soil analysis results are carefully carried out on this shaded coffee farm. Broca is controlled with traps. Taking care of a coffee nursery is one permanent activity. Nowadays, they are beginning to test organic fertilizers based on mill by-products and sea weeds. New nurseries are also part of their activities; some 35,000 new trees are replanted on 8 hectares over a 2 year period.
These activities employ 10 workers from March through September. At harvest, December to February the number of workers increases to 90. In the family, the growth and development of the community is a priority; therefore a school, a clinic, a foot-ball field and a church were built on land donated by the family. Since the year 2000 electricity is also available for the community. They also took some steps to get computers for the school though a program from USAID, CARE and the Agriculture Ministry. Special emphasis is also placed to keep the environment and they donated trees to reforest the school surroundings.
Coffee is washed with clean water, sun dried at the “Beneficio San Miguel Ingenio” rebuilt in 1932 by his grandfather after the flood of San Miguel River that devastated the old mill. At this mill only coffee from the Luna family descendants is processed and to guarantee its origin, the harvest from each individual farm is milled and stored separately.
Cup of Excellence® motivated employees at the mill to have better control of the wet process and coffee pickers are enthusiastic to know that their additional effort is also rewarded by better wages. For them, COE left a tremendous learning experience in correct processing which they have been improving by setting more control points throughout the wet and dry milling.
Nombre de Dios won COE in 2005, and this allowed them to attract interest from buyers, and also develop other projects to serve the local market with processed coffee. Maria Elena and her family are thrilled, they believe that COE allows them to regain a name in the international market, they also hope to improve quality and productivity hand by hand and specialize in top quality coffee production.

Other Statistics:

Coffee varieties: 95% Bourbón, 5% Pacas
Type of Shade: Pepeto, guachipilin, pink apple, mango, encino, maquilishuat gravileo, cypress, liquidambar, walnut, laurel.
Average Annual Rainfall: 2,000 mm
Average Temperature: 19 ºC
Type of Soil: Clay loam
Annual Production: (60kg) 400 bags
Mill and company where lot was process: San Miguel Ingenio mill
Other crops: Peaches, oranges, avocado, maracuja, maize.
Other land: Pine and Oak forestFauna: Torogoz, Roadrunners, butterflies, rabbits, agouti, small mammals, deer, etc.

GPS Coordinates:

Latitude: N 14º 19’ 29.0’’
Longitude: W 89º 19’ 22.1’’