Permaculture and Coffee
Geology and Coffee
Elsa Gregorio Hernandez harvests coffee by hand. Elsa is employed as a coffee “picker” by Federación Comercializadora de Café Especial de Guatemala (FECCEG) member, Diego Jacinto Sales. Harvesting by hand, it is a physically demanding job performed on steep hillsides in hot, humid conditions. Image by Mark Caicedo By Wilson Caicedo There many roles played by soils, topography, and geology in general that influence a coffee’s flavor. There are several macronutrients and micronutrients that a coffee plant requires in order to thrive. Nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous are necessary macronutrients. Micronutrients, such as zinc, magnesium, boron, iron, and copper are needed as well by coffee plants. Nitrogen intake affects the caffeine content of a bean. Potassium is important to the physiological development of fruit, and phosphorus is necessary for root, wood, and bud development (Emma Sage, Basic Plant Biology: Keeping the Coffee Plant “Happy,” www.scaa.org) Coffee’s annual average temperature should beContinue Reading
Terroir +
- 8 Dec 2015
By Wilson Caicedo Throughout the progression of this quarter, we’ve learned how the concept of terroir is used as a marketing standpoint in the chocolate,Continue Reading
- 22 Sep 2015
photo: By Jeff Kubina (Coffee Beans) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons Terroir + Components 4a) Terroir can be understood the metaphysical circle of soil, nature, origin and humanContinue Reading
