Los Angeles – Los Naranjos

Finca Los Angeles is a farm solely planted with Pacamara, situated in the Ahuachapán mountain range in the west of El Salvador. This farm is part of the Los Naranjos group headed by Sigfredo Corado, a retired professor of Agronomy from the National School of Agriculture. The farm is part of the Renacer Program (”Reborn” in Spanish) which is a technical coffee field school and educational program for producers in the area to learn about better farm management practices. This program is funded by Raices (Roots) and supported by Catholic Relief Services in El Salvador.
The technical field school, led by Sigfredo, consists of 6 field technicians. It is designed to help small to medium sized producers in the area, by focusing on best farm practices that are restorative for the land and soil, as well as beneficial for the yield and quality of the coffee. The field school is based at the sister farm, Finca Noruega, where there is a class held twice a month. This year they have 60 students, and at Finca Noruega where the technical school is based, the students work on test plots where they can implement the knowledge gained in class before applying it to their own farms.
Finca Los Angeles, is planted only with pacamara, and has been under Sigfredo for 10 years. Since he took on the farm they have used no herbicides, in order to help replenish the soil and nutrients and to give a good base for growing coffee again. The farm is broken into 23 Manzanas with approximately 3000 trees in each section. The farm is divided with shade trees and wind barriers to protect the trees. It is managed on a day to day basis by some of the graduates from the technical school as well.
The coffee is selectively harvested, then taken to the wet mill at Beneficio San Rafael, where it is is washed and floated before being processed as a washed coffee, and dried on beds.