Elver Ruiz Alberca

FINCA EL ROMERILLO STORY

In the northern province of Jaen in Peru, we arrive to the district of San Jose del Alto where the most important agricultural activity is coffee. Here we meet Elver Ruiz and his wife Rosa Castillo at their farm El Romerillo where they have Catuai and Catimor, with some guaba trees for shade, plus yuca, plantain, pineapple, and other fruits for their consumption. Elver has been close to coffee from a young age as his parents where coffee farmers who instilled in him the notion of working the field decently, honestly and with passion. It been already 30 years of him working with his own coffee trees and around 2018 he decided to follow the path of specialty coffee because of the better price as he can provide a better quality of life for his family. Also, he has always liked and been fascinated by producing great quality coffee, besides, he wants to provide a good product and fulfill the expectations of the consumers of his coffee. At the farm, he lives and works alongside his wife and kids. Elver has also feel compelled in continuing this path of quality as neighbors and other coffee farmers visit him to see his farm management and process to learn. His goals are to keep improving to achieve better qualities, have other varieties and keep improving his farm management.

The Elver processes his coffee start with a good cherry picking which then are floated to take out the lower density cherries and any foreign material such as small branches or leaves. Then, the cherries are pulped, and the subsequent beans fermented from 36 to 48 hours in tightly closed bags and sometimes in open air tiled covered tubs. After, the beans

Are dried in parabolic covered beds for 10 to 15 days depending on the climate.