Adelmo
Adelmo remembers his father with admiration. He has memories of picking coffee with him and his brothers on the family farm in Inzá. His father, who dedicated his life to farming coffee and his sons, raised Adelmo and his brothers by working on farms as a picker. His father later emulated practices he learned as a picker and passed those learnings onto Adelmo and his brothers for their farm.
At 12 years old, Adelmo traveled to La Plata (Huila) with his brothers to work as a coffee picker. He quickly learned that working on the family farm was going to bring him a better living.
However, with such low prices for coffee, illicit crops became an attractive alternative for many farmers. Many of Adelmo’s neighbors, lured by higher and more frequent payments, attempted to persuade him to grow illicit crops. The community changed, and the culture of illegality permeated its social fabric. Adelmo noticed this and began to advocate for coffee production. After all, coffee has been produced in his town by smallholder farmers for generations. “Some listened to me when I told them that we should keep farming coffee, and many more followed my example,” says Adelmo.
Adelmo still uses the processing techniques his father taught him. He claims that while many farmers pick up fallen fruit, the secret is to leave them on the ground to fertilize the soil. Without a doubt, his techniques are working. Two years ago, Adelmo’s coffee placed third in a local contest, reaffirming his methods to produce high-quality specialty coffee.
Department: Cauca
Varietal: Castillo
Altitude: 1490 MASL
Process: Washed double fermentation
Shade Trees: Plantain, banana, cachimbo, and orange
