This lot was produced by 2 smallholder farmers: Ismael Alarcon Mirez&Leonilda Catrina Herrera. Both are members of the El Santuario Association, which works with small scale producers in Cajamarca, Peru. The lot name ‘ La Palma’  was chosen as it is the town closest to the farms of both producers. Ismael’s farm is named La Palmera, after the native tree that grows readily there. Leonilda’s farms are La Naranja(the Orange Tree), La Pina (the pineapple) and Laurel also after fruit trees that grow on her land.

Ismael is 29 years old and has been farming coffee all his life. Ismael takes coffee production very seriously. He regularly fertilises his coffee (January and October) and prunes at the end of September. Most years his harvest starts in May and ends in October.

Leonilda Cotrina Herrera is 30 years old and lives with her husband and her three children near the town of La Palma. She also relies entirely on coffee production to help support her family.

As Leonilda’s farm lies at a slightly higher elevation, her cultivation activities tend to follow Ismael’s by a month or so. She usually finishes harvesting in November.

Both Ismael and Leonilda use the same strict harvest and processing methods so as to insure that the natural potential of their coffee is maintained. During the harvest, coffee is selectively handpicked with only the ripest cherries being harvested at each pass. The coffee is pulped on the same day that is picked using a mechanical pulper, located on the farm itself. After pulping, it will then ferment in a tin tank for around 18 hours(depending on ambient temperature) before being washed clean in pure water. Both Ismael and Leonilda have constructed raised ‘African’ beds for drying and the clean parchment will lie on these, being turned regularly, for around two weeks, or until humidity reaches 11.5-12% humidity.

Leonilda and Ismael feel blessed to be members and clients of the newly formed ‘Finca Santuario SA’ – a small coffee business formed  of numerous small farms that neigbour one another in Cajamarca Peru. Although the participating farms are all small – around 5 hectares on average – the total land under coffee represented by the group is around 250 hectares in total, thus the productive potential is substantial.

Long term goals of Santuario include expanding the presence of high quality Caturra, Typica and Bourbon.

Ultimately, Santuario aims to help producers in one of Peru’s most impoverished but also promising (coffee-wise) districts to find sustainable markets for their coffee and improve their livelihoods.