Part 2 of our travelogue blog post, featuring our recent trip to Costa Rica's Hacienda La Amistad, an off-the-grid organic farm. Click here to read Part 1

Roberto took us on a drive in his truck across the farm, cruising over hilly terrain through the lush, green shade of the surrounding rainforest. We stopped at a section of the farm where ripened coffee cherries were ready to be picked, growing under a variety of trees where wild birds swooped and called out. 90% of Hacienda la Amistad is protected rainforest, and the estate is home to over 400 different species of migratory birds, filling the air with song and the fluttering of wings. New coffee plants had been planted in rows between plantain trees for shade, and Roberto showed us his method of providing natural nutrients to the new coffee plants, surrounding the soil with broken and dead branches, mulched coffee cherry skin, leaves, and ash.

We discussed the life expectancy of a coffee plant. If conventionally grown with chemicals, a coffee plant will last about 25 years. Alternatively, organic coffee plants live for 40 to 50 years! This all goes back to maintaining nutrient-rich soil with natural compost, working with nature instead of fighting nature. Once conventionally grown coffee gets a taste of herbicides or pesticides, it becomes dependent on those chemicals, creating an unhealthy cycle of dependency that limits the life cycle of each plant and adversely affects the soil and land surrounding the plants as well.

Next, Roberto took us on a trek to see the devastating effects of coffee roya, which has caused coffee production issues throughout Central America. Roya is a coffee leaf fungus that spreads to the coffee plant’s roots and leaves. Rust-like spots appear on the leaves, and the plants can’t bear fruit.

Roberto has been working to restore his crop by planting a rust-resistant coffee plant, interestingly brought to the farm from Brazil by Roberto’s grandfather, two generations ago. Noting this plant’s resilience, Roberto focused on growing it in seedling nurseries and planting it across the farm. Over the last three years, he has planted nearly 500,000 new coffee plants! It’s incredible to see these changes made on such a large scale. Yet for Roberto, these new plantings were essential: a long-term investment in the health and welfare of his farm.

We ate lunch back at the lodge - a delicious meal of steak, local vegetables, rice, and beans. It’s incredible to see the sustainability of the farm in everything that they do, from the food we were given to the electricity generated by their hydroelectric power plant. They have cows and bulls on the land, free roaming chickens, horses, pineapple trees, mango trees, and avocados. Not only has Roberto’s family been producing coffee since 1898, they also have an off-site dried fruit plant, where Roberto processes organic mangoes, bananas, and pineapples for export.

After lunch, we piled back in the Roberto’s truck to go see the coffee being picked. As we descended down the slopes of the mountain on curving dirt roads, we saw coffee pickers gathering with their baskets overflowing with red cherries, waiting to unload their daily pickings into the back of a collection truck and to receive their payment for a day’s labor. Among the local workers are many who travel to the estate to pick coffee during the harvest season, which runs from November to March. Since Hacienda La Amistad offers excellent wages and working conditions, along with free housing, many of the same workers return, year after year.