Rosa Delia Romero, Finca El Pinal

I’ve been growing coffee for twenty years now. First with my father, who taught me all the ins and outs, and later with my husband, Macario.

My grandfather worked with bees, he collected and sold honey for a living. It’s something we should maybe start doing again, it combines well with growing coffees and the bees are a tremendous help for the pollination process.

My husband and I are a great team. Together, we own 5 hectares of land and we each have our preferences and strengths, so we complement each other very well. Our children help out as well, mostly during the harvest season, when there is too much work for my spouse and I alone.

While we need the farm for a living, and although I work sixty hours per week, I mostly see it as a hobby. It’s physically exhausting at times, but it’s spiritually uplifting. I rarely feel stress, I enjoy nature, the birds singing around me, and I especially like being my own boss and planning my days as I see fit.

It’s also fantastic to be able to work as a team with my husband and often the children too. It keeps us united as a family, also because we are interdependent and we share in our success.

We haven’t been preparing micro-lots for a long time yet, but we’re very interested in focusing on that specific aspect of the coffee industry. It’s simply sensational to know that my coffee is now being sold in China. I would have never thought that even remotely possible only a few years ago. 

Now, I’m increasingly good at harvesting only the best beans for our mico-lots, and fine-tune drying and preparing to assure the highest quality and also consistent lots. We grow three varieties: lempira, paca, and parainema, all of which are excellent for specialty coffees.

Farm facts

We have 5 hectares at 1,300 meters.

There are many trees that provide shadow and that grow on our land naturally, since long before we started cultivating coffee on it : Pino, Lesquín, Guamo, Mango, Malsinca, Roble. 

Our varieties are lempira, pacas, and parainema.

The finca is FTO and RFA certified.