MEXICO ORGANIC BIODYNAMIC FINCA IRLANDA

Sourcing Details:

Since the 1960s, Walter Peters has been biodynamically cultivating coffee on his 110 acre farm called Finca Irlanda located in Chiapas, Mexico near the city of Tapachula.  Finca Irlanda was the first coffee farm in the world to be certified Biodynamic.

Farm Management:

Biodynamics is a holistic approach to agriculture where the farm is managed as an interconnected organism that generates its own fertility. For Finca Irlanda, cultivating and harvesting coffee creates critical raw materials for the cycle of fertility.   For example, pulp from the depulped coffee is converted into organic fertilizer and returned to the coffee plants and canopy of forest that enjoy a microbial rich soil with the capacity to regenerate nutrients for the subsequent season on coffee production.  Similarly, wastewater from fermenting and washing coffee (called honey water) is loaded with microorganisms that are incorporated into compost and biofertilizers.  Mechanical drying uses wood harvested from the farm and coffee parchment as fuel, which generates ash that is also incorporated into compost to amend the soil on the farm.

Processing Details

During the harvest cherries are delivered to the wet-mill where they are floated to remove less dense and damaged coffee before being depulped and fermented so that the mucilage can be washed from the beans and dried in the sun on patios or mechanically dried in a horizontal drum called a guardiola.