Barista Magazine

AUG-SEP 2013

Barista Magazine is your home for the worldwide community of coffee and the people who make it.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC don't exactly know what it was that changed, but I know that things are different. I take my 13 acres more seriously than I ever have in the past. I'm trying to use every bit of technology that I've ever learned about to push the farm forward—things like weed eaters, a new grass seed I've seen in Brazil and Tanzania, new processes I cooked up while thinking about the best of both natural and washed processes, and many more. Even the terrible coffee-leaf rust this year hasn't totally dampened my spirits. The coffee-berry disease almost did. The fungus is about as common as coffee-leaf rust and people that know it fear it as much if not more than coffee-leaf rust. Finca La Paz was hit hard by both this year. I sprayed both organic and chemical fungicides for the first time ever. There is also some kind of insect that is boring into the stem of some coffee trees. My farm manager has been really sick for the last several months and may have cancer. All of this still doesn't put out the flame I have for this medium-altitude farm. Every year the washed coffee gets a little better (probably fertilizer). The cup score has only broken 85 once. The natural from two years ago was fantastic. This year the natural rotted because of the brutal rainy season. Remember Hurricane Sandy? Well, Hurricane Sandy hit the Caribbean long before it slammed into the Mid-Atlantic and left a ton of damage in its wake. In farming you are afforded glimpses of control, just little glimmers of hope. It is mostly just one problem after the next. But now, through everything I've seen, I'm still hopeful for coffee production even though it doesn't make sense on an economic level. There is something spiritual about coffee, something that transcends cup scores, latte art, and money. If I had to explain it I might lose touch with reality. So I'd rather just sit with it and 30 barista magazine Santa Izabel, Ouro Fino, Minas Gerais, Brasil: Byron's new home. think that all the mistakes and errors will actually lead to a positive change to make green coffee better. Like I said in the beginning, I actually want you to buy a farm. But, just like my best friend's dad who was an art-history professor, I want you to be realistic in your expectations. He discouraged his students from following in his footsteps because he didn't want to paint them a romantic vision. He slept in his van so he could attend and afford grad school while he had two young boys. Anyone could write this article about making mistakes and learning from them in a new venture. A shop owner would talk about bar design and training employees. I just wanted to share some of my greatest mistakes, to give you a frame of reference for how things actually happen at origin. Oh, and as a farmer, things are never good enough, and we don't usually talk about the things that go well. I also have buckets of beautiful stories—they just don't fit here. The other reality is that I only visit the farm two to three times a year. In order to have more control and react to issues faster, I would have to move there. I'm extremely hopeful the future of Finca La Paz. Many of the mistakes have been corrected and the farm looks better than ever. The future is bright, but the road on a farm is never smooth. So where am I now? Moving to Brazil to be the director of agribusiness and manage a medium-size farm named Santa Izabel in the Sul de Minas Gerais region. I hope that over the next decade or so we can make green coffee better in every way: easier to grow, easier to roast, easier to sell—and of course, much, much tastier.

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