Finca Sofia – The Road Ahead

Posted on July 29, 2010 by David Pohl

I just returned from a month on our farm in Panama.  I have been writing about the progress on the worker housing as well as good news we received about the health of our coffee trees. Things are looking good.

My last week in Panama saw significant progress to the worker housing – much of the cement was applied to the walls, enabling the workers to begin putting up the roof this week.  This was despite incessant rain, delayed materials and a flu epidemic that affected much of our workforce and their families (mine was spared).  My last day on the farm I brought lunch for everyone, and we were able to share in a little informal, social time together – a rarity given all the work to do on any given day.

Looking back on my time in Panama, the complexity of Finca Sofia stands out – it is about more than just coffee.  It is about roads, people, the environment and buildings too.

Beyond Coffee

Ok, there is of course the coffee, and establishing this aspect of the farm is priority number one.   We heard from Edgardo Miranda, the agronomist working with us since the beginning, that our trees are looking quite good.  Good news.  But beyond the coffee there are many other associated elements that are vital to the eventual success of the farm.

The road up to Finca Sofia is 3.4 kilometers long.  It is unpaved, rocky and this time of year quite muddy.  It is also beautiful, meandering through pastoral landscapes, climbing ever higher into the mountains of the western highlands of Panama.  The only way up is in a 4 wheel-drive vehicle with ten inches of clearance. Or on foot, which takes 45 minutes.  When conditions are good, meaning not too wet, it takes 11 minutes in a truck. When conditions are bad it can take twice as long or can be impassable.  To give you a better idea of what I mean, here is a (long) video of the trip from bottom to top.

We need to be able to easily access Finca Sofia.  One of our biggest expenses is transportation, and this will increase as we begin harvesting.  We would love to pave the entire stretch but this would be prohibitively expensive at this point.  So, we are looking into paving the last 600 meters of the road, and we have petitioned the local government to help with the first 600 meters.  While I don’t know whether our request is going to be approved, Panama is currently on an infrastructure improvement push, in an effort to attract foreign investment.  Of course our road isn’t priority number one (that would be the widening of the Panama Canal), but it does serve as a vital link for some 15 farms near us, all of which send produce to Panama City.  Who knows?

Our workforce is also a top priority.  As mentioned previously, the 8 people working on Finca Sofia spend at least 40 hours a week there, and many of them also live there.  They have a deep understanding of the farm, know which trees are healthy, as well as which parts of the farm harbor snakes.  We need to care for them, which is why we are building worker housing, giving out raises and offering support to family members like little Angelica, who is returning to the farm after three months in the US where she received much needed surgery to her leg.

Improving the natural environment is another priority. Finca Sofia is not an organic farm, and may never be, but we use a negligable amount of non-organic inputs compared to  our horticultural neighbors.  Furthermore – we are maintaining and reforesting all of our land, an important fact when nearly all of the land around us has been deforested, and we are right next to the Parque Amistad, an international reserve shared by Panama and Costa Rica.  Most of the surrounding farms rely on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, usually applied by hand or with blowers.  It surprised me, honestly, that workers on other farms would operate blowers with little or no protection.

So, why aren’t we organic? The prevailing opinion in much of the coffee world is that if you don’t use chemicals your coffee isn’t as good as it could be.  And while we know that great coffee can be grown organically, just like great tomatoes, the truth is that some of the best coffees are not organic.  Why?  It takes something like 40 pounds of compost per plant to have the same impact as three applications of liquid or granular fertilizer.  Producing this much compost is not possible for most farmers, and the cost of labor to apply it makes it prohibitive.  Imagine, on Finca Sofia we will have 35,000 plants.  If done organically, this would require 1.4 million pounds of compost per year! The simple fact is that it is much easier and cost effective to use non-organic fertilizers for most farmers.

Finca Sofia has been relying on local resources and knowledge to get our farm started.  Each of our coffee seedlings costs around $1.00, so it is our goal to make sure each plant stays alive and thrives.  There are a myriad of pests and plagues that attack our coffee plants, and if left uncontrolled these would completely destroy the farm.  We also fertilize based on the soil PH, to ensure the plants are getting the nutrients they need.  Our long term vision is to be as “organic” as possible, replacing non-organic inputs with organic to the greatest extent possible.  One possibility, demonstrated by farmers in Boquete, Panama, is to set up a compost cooperative in Volcan, allowing a group of farmers to invest in and benefit from the production of organic compost.

Over the next two years we will be building more worker housing for the people who will be harvesting our coffee as well as a mill to process our coffee.  While we could hire people from town to pick our coffee, without offering housing, it is a long way from the main road and we know from experience that farmers that don’t have enough workers at the right moment can lose much of their crop.  So, we will need another building within two years.

The mill can technically wait, as we could use one of our neighbor’s.  But in the long run we will want to have control of the entire process, and milling is a critical aspect in terms of the final cup quality.  Putting our treasured “green gold” into the hands of another miller, even one we know and trust, is a gamble.  I cannot tell you how many times we have seen coffee quality fall off significantly because a coffee has been improperly milled or stored.  So, really, we will want to have our own mill up an running as soon as possible.

In the end Finca Sofia is a grand adventure – a project that will span many years and, we hope, decades.  We have our work cut out for us, but we are excited and pleased with the progress so far.

“The Farm Looks Great”

Posted on July 12, 2010 by David Pohl

This week, my second of three on the ground in Panama,  we had a visit from Edgardo Miranda, a well respected Panamanian agronomist and coffee producer.  Edgardo has been visiting Finca Sofia since the day we bought it, and has been involved in the development of it from an unplanted piece of land to what it is today – something approaching a coffee farm.

Visits by Edgardo are always a mixed bag – we see what is working and what isn’t.    Having invested so much in Finca Sofia it is agonizing when things aren’t going well – and indeed we have had more than our fair share of challenges, despite a lot of hard work and carefully considered decisions.  On this visit, however, Edgardo had the feeling that Finca Sofia had actually turned some corners.  While walking along, I heard him say, “You can stop worrying – this looks like a coffee farm!”

The sections that looked “critical” before looked “established” now.  The sections of the farm that didn’t have enough shade now had too much shade and needed to be cut back.

So said Edgardo, “From my perspective the farm is looking good . . .the are some details to attend to but in general it looks really good”.  Kelly was happy, I was happy, Helen, Brooke and Willem were happy when I reported this to them.  While we know that we have a long row to hoe and that this farm is never really done, that this is “lifestyle” and a long term labor of love, it is gratifying for all involved to know that we are doing some things well.

So what does this upbeat assessment mean in the long run – well nothing really.  I have heard too many reports of farmers that have lost their farms to plagues, financial missteps, or market fluctuations, to be too comforted  by this report.  All it means is that right now we are doing well, the farm is taking shape, the weather has been cooperating, and the hard work Kelly, Angel, Andres, Eligio, Abdis, Jesus, Franklin and Vicente dedicate to the farm 6 days a week is paying off.

In the “long-run” we will have to maintain a sense of urgency, adaptability, and patience for this to continue to be a success and to become a productive coffee operation.  We also want to keep and support the workers we have that in many ways understand the farm – from the soil to the trees to the wildlife to the weather patterns – better than we do.  They after all live on the farm, or close to it, and spend 8 hours a day 6 days a week traversing, working and monitoring it.

As such we know the farm will benefit immeasurably by keeping our “team” happy and engaged – which is why we are building what the locals are calling “5-star” worker housing.  The “campamentos” as I have earlier reported are nicer than you normally find in Panama.  We approached them with simplicity in mind, and by western standards they are basic, but the design is both creative and efficient, the materials are top-notch, and the process of building, which I have been a part of the past few weeks, is professional and intentional.  The result is something we hope the workers can comfortably embrace as a true “home” for many years.

Regarding the campamentos, we had a big week – bad weather turned really good just as the workers that had “deserted” the work site the previous week returned (or their replacements showed up).   By Friday afternoon a lot of cement was up on the walls, and I was feeling for the first time that I could step back and stop worrying “that not enough was happening”.

Enrique, the general contractor for the project, was a little more relaxed, though he carries the weight of all of the upcoming details and probably wasn’t as relieved as I was.  Still, we all were talking about the roof Friday, which had to wait on until the first layer of cement was applied to the walls,  and I’ll be getting quotes on materials Monday.  Once the roof is up the work site will be protected rain or shine, and things should move along more quickly.

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After just two weeks on Finca Sofia I am struck by what a huge undertaking this is.  Next week, as I wrap up my time here in Panama, I will reflect a little more one what I mean by this.

Finca Sofia Update – Week One!

Posted on July 6, 2010 by David Pohl

I have been on Finca Sofia for just over a week and have seen amazing progress with the worker housing we are building.

When I arrived the foundation and one or two walls had been completed.  This in and of itself was a great achievement.  Now, despite a lot of rain, sick employees, and delayed delivery of supplies all of the walls are up and we are preparing to plaster them.

Enrique, the general contractor, is a skilled and hardworking builder and a funny guy.  He is very precise and is reinforcing the building beyond the requirements to make it safer, dryer and longer-lasting.  Kelly and I have been pitching in wherever we are needed – such as picking up supplies, sealing joints or separating sand for cement.  We have the World Cup on in the background whenever there is a game on.

When I leave here in two weeks we should have much of the plastering done, as well as part of the roof up.  Time will tell.

Beyond the worker housing the farm looks great. There are actually some geisha cherries on a few plants, including some at 1950 meters! This is a promising sign that our trees will be more productive next year.

And of course we have been seeing snakes on the farm, including the bright green “eyelash viper”.

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