Selva Negra's Seed to Export Tour
Growing coffee at Selva Negra follows the cycles of nature through the year, reaching its climax between November and February when we harvest the precious red berries. The pictures and words in this presentation will give you a taste of how Selva Negra produces one of the most celebrated brands of coffee in the world, in harmony with nature and our love of the cloud forest. The links at the bottom of each page jump directly to a specific section of interest. To view the entire process, start at the nursery.
The Nursery
Planting the new coffee
After selecting the best beans from the best bushes in the plantation, we plant them as seeds in individual pots. The planting soil is out of the ordinary too. It's the product of putting a special breed of worm to work on digesting cow manure. The result is a highly-nutritious, clean-smelling soil that provides the best start in life for our coffee trees.
Young coffee plants maturing at the nursery
Our gardeners carefully nurture the plants in the nursery until the seedlings are mature enough to replant in the fields. They will be used to replace older bushes in and renew cattle pastures by converting them into coffee plantillos. Take note of the shade that surrounds even the new coffee trees in the nursery.
More than just young coffee plants
Set out in the nursery amongst the new coffee plants in their individual pots are seedlings for new shade trees. Just as with the coffee plants, we interplant the shade trees within the current plantillos. We also plant them to shade other areas we are converting into coffee plantillos and reforest overused lands we have acquired and added to Selva Negra. Other plants we grow in the nursery and integrate into our coffee plantillos include fruit-bearing trees that feed wildlife and put food on our tables.
Maintenance of the Coffee Plantillos
Introduction
Maintenance of the plantillos is constant and endless. Some of the many tasks include weed and pest control, mulching and composting, and pruning the shade trees.
Pruning
The best quality of coffee is grown under shade instead of full sunlight. Ideally, the trees cast shade on the coffee plants for 60% of daylight hours during the dry season and for 40% during the rainy season.
Shade trees must be pruned to cut away vines and dead branches that block sunlight from filtering down to the plants. Approximately 20% of the shade of the plantation is pruned each year. We prune each area every five or six years.
Pruning is tough work. Most of the shade trees at Selva Negra are native trees that will live for centuries as tall, sturdy specimens. The only way to prune some of the trees is to climb many stories high with special equipment.
Our workers begin pruning as soon as the harvest ends. We recycle the pruned vegetation as mulch in between the rows of coffee trees to prevent weeds. When the mulch begins to decay it's off to the composting bins, where we turn it into organic fertilizer to grow new trees and crops. Thus the cycle of life at Selva Negra renews itself endlessly through the seasons and years.
Weed & pest control
Selva Negra is pioneering new ways to minimize the use of industrial pesticides and herbicides. We experiment continuously with natural and bioorganic methods of weed and pest controls.
For example, we mulch the rows between the coffee trees with coffee husks and algae from the estate ponds to prevent weeds from taking root. To repel pests we spray our plants, trees and veggies with tea-like solutions fortified by natural repellents which we grow ourselves, such as the seeds and leaves of the neem tree, madero, chilli and garlic. Please refer to the sustainability section of the Selva Negra website for more detail on these efforts.
Compost & fertilizers
Just like your own body, soil is a living organism that needs to constantly replenish itself with food and nutrients. Selva Negra is breaking new ground in the development of innovative ways to return soil to the peak of productivity without industrial chemicals.
For example, we make our own compost out of waste from the farm and hotel, such as coffee pulp, cow manure, chicken manure, garbage, algae harvested from the lake, rice husks, pruned vegetation and old mulch. Some of our compost bins are so big they hold 30 tons each! Every year we produce about 300 tons of organic fertilizer. Please refer to the sustainability section of the Selva Negra website for more detail on these initiatives.
Development of the bean
The flower
The period between April and May at the end of dry season is the favourite time of year for many of visitors. This is when the first rains of the year awaken the blossoming of tiny, brilliant white flowers that cover the coffee plants like a dusting of snow. Dense bouquets cluster at the base of dark, shiny leaves, perfuming the entire plantation with the aromas of jasmine and orange. Sadly, the display of coffee flower ends after only a few days, and the coffee bushes set to work bring forth the beans.
The green bean
The green bean develops slowly until November, ripening into a bright red cherry that is ready to be hand-picked.
The red bean
Beans on the same branch ripen at different times because the branch sets out blossoms at different times. As this picture shows, many of the beans on a single branch are red, ripe and ready to be harvested but some are still green. Only red cherries can be used for the highest quality of coffee. The green beans must wait for the next round of picking. Usually the second round of picking produces the largest harvest of the season.
Harvest of the coffee beans
Introduction
The harvest is an exciting time to visit Selva Negra because of the buzz of activity and the anticipation of producing one of the best coffees in the world. We hire seasonal workers to help perform the staggering amount of work that goes into picking each red coffee cherry at its peak of ripeness.
Picking
Each plantillo needs about three to five passes of bean-picking by the time the harvest ends. Picking is skilled work. Care must be taken to pluck the bean without damaging the branch. The pickers are helped by other specialists who are often members of the same household.
Meal time
All employees and the members of their teams take their meals together, prepared in our own kitchens. A typical meal for the workers at Selva Negra includes Nicaragua's national dish, gallo pinto (rice and beans seasoned with herbs and spices); ensalada (a salad of shredded cabbage, carrots, green peppers and onions dressed in freshly-squeezed lime juice); corn tortillas; and hearty meat and vegetable dishes of the day.
Measuring the harvest
At the end of the day we tally the harvest of each picker. The beans are poured into a wooden barrel with measurements marked along its height, and the beans are then bagged and taken to the mill. Picking is piece-work - the higher the tally, the higher the pay.
Delivering the days picking to the mill
The harvested beans go directly to the mill and are deposited in a large bin where we begin processing them.
Processing
Introduction
Processing begins as soon as the beans reach the mill by truck. Our workers transfer the beans from the truck into a giant bin. Water pours into the bin and the force of gravity propels the beans through a V-shaped groove at the bottom of the bin to the milling equipment. The force of the water breaks open the coffee cherry and separates out the husk. Processing produces several layers of material, including the cherry pulp and the mucilaginous layer (a sweet, honey-like coating).
Removal of cherry pulp (skin)
Our milling equipment is the most environmentally-sensitive on the market. Only the force of water's gravity is used to move the beans through the machinery, and the shell is removed from the beans without the use of water, thus conserving this precious resource.
Discarding of the pulp (skin
The pulp of the bean is diverted to our worm farm, where special breeds of worm chow down on the pulp to make compost. We also add the pulp to other wastes to compost a more complete fertilizer.
Fermentation Process
Fermentation removes the mucilaginous (sticky) layer around the coffee bean. Here the beans are moved by water to concrete fermentation bins. The bins are cleaned after each batch of coffee is processed. The beans remain in the fermentation bins for 24 to 48 hours depending on temperature and humidity levels. We stir the beans with an old-fashioned stick to find out when they are ready to be washed.
Washing the beans
Follow the bouncing beans after they've finished fermenting. Water pushes them through many feet of channels and over a concrete waterfall. All that bouncing around strips away of the mucilaginous layer that remains after fermentation.
Disposal of the honey water
The process of fermenting coffee cherries, washing them and moving them through the mill produces honey water, a waste product that contains the mucilaginous layer of the coffee bean. Honey water can cause severe contamination if it's poured into waterways. At Selva Negra we recycle honey water in biodigestor tanks that decontaminate it and produce natural gas, which we use in our kitchens. The excess water is now so pure we use it to irrigate cattle pastures during the dry season. Please refer to the sustainability section of the web site for more details.
At the end of the washing process
During the washing process we grade our beans by pouring them into a channel after they pass through the waterfall. The heaviest beans sink to the bottom. The heavier the bean, the higher its quality. These are our 'keepers'. They're the only ones good enough to make the cut as Selva Negra brand coffee, recognized as among the best in the world.
The "floaters" drift on the surface of the water to the end of the channel. In this picture you can see how wooden slats are used to hold back the heavier, higher-quality beans while the floaters drift to the end of the line. We dry the floaters on separate racks and sell them to makers of inferior brands.
Would you like to find out how you can taste Selva Negra Coffee without visiting us? Look for Selva Negra Estate Coffee in Authentic Origin coffee section of all US & Canadian Whole Foods stores. And check out the growing list below to see if there is a coffee shop near you where you can enjoy a cup. If you find a link that is inactive, or you don't find a shop near you that carries Selva Negra Coffee, please let us know.
Are you a coffee retailer or roaster who would like to carry our brand? Please e-mail karen@selvanegra.com.
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