Vanessa Hernández, Finca El Roblar
I’m a third-generation coffee farmer and although I have an office job now, I keep working on the finca when I can…
My father recently passed away, so now my mom and I have a much bigger responsibility for the finca than we had before. We run a little grocery shop where my mom sells basic goods like water, toilet paper and rice, but she often closes the shop for a few hours to work on the finca. We also sometimes hire help, when it’s too much for the two of us, especially during the harvest.
When I was a girl, I always spent my weekends on the farm during harvest season, mostly because there was nothing I liked more than picking those shiny red beans as fast as I could. My mom always laughed when she noticed my zeal and enthusiasm, but when she was little, she did the same.
Vanessa and her mom - Irma - have been going through a rough period after their father and husband passed away. But they were resilient and never gave up. Now, they see a better future again, thanks to their hard work and their high quality beans.
Her parents were the first in our family to start growing coffee plants. At the time, they had to water every plant individually, because there was no shade at all. Now, we have lots of trees to provide shadow, like chilindron, cuajiniquil, liquidambar and robles; trees native to our region, for which there aren’t really any English names.
In October 2019, I’ve participated in a CAFESMO workshop to learn how to prepare coffee for micro-lots. Now that my father is no longer able to transmit his knowledge, I am looking for other ways to deepen my understanding and expertise.
I will be participating in other workshops as my mom and I are determined to continually improve the quality of our beans and offer micro-lots prepared with different processes. We are especially interested in growing long-lasting relationships with small, ambitious roasters from anywhere in the world. When we are partners over a longer period of time, we will be able to slowly fine-tune our lots in accordance with your preferences and, together, prepare coffees that are ideally adapted to the palate of your clients.
Farm facts
Our farm is close to 7 hectares, divided over three smaller lots that are near one another, all located around 1,300 meters. We grow Lempira, Paca, Parainema, IHCAFE 90 and have lots of shadow from native trees like like chilindron, cuajiniquil, liquidambar and robles.
We also have orange trees, which, apart from providing shadow, imbue a zest of citric flavor to the surrounding coffee plants.
Our farm is FTO certified.
This farm is Rain Forest Alliance certified.