El Salvador - Santa Elena, Natural Espresso

Fernando Lima proudly describes his coffee farms as a “Time capsule”; an idyllic snapshot of agriculture from the early twentieth century where farming practices were derived from the distilled knowledge and experience of generations. 

However, it was not a romanticised view of traditional farming methods that first led the Lima family to seek organic certification. In 2006 the Volcano Santa Ana (Ilamtepeque) erupted, destroying much of the farm’s infrastructure and damaging the coffee plantations. Mineral dense volcanic ash covered much of the plantation as it does approximately every 100 years. In conjunction with the chemical agricultural products that had been used on the farm prior to the eruption, the ash served to acidify the soil to such an extent that synthetic fertilizers were no longer viable and in fact would prove detrimental to plant health. 

Faced with a decision that had already been partially made by circumstance, the Lima family moved to take advantage of the natural wealth provided by the volcanic geology of their farms and restructure their entire operation, including the Balcanes coffee processing mill to be certified organic and adopt natural and sustainable methods of production.