Source: AzaharSources
Antonia Fuentes was born and raised in San Andrés Lovene, a village in the Sierra Sur of Oaxaca. At 1,920 M.A.S.L, her community clings to the mountains, where Zapotec is spoken in daily life, sharing knowledge and traditions through each generation, of which coffee has a very important role. Her farm, Rancho La Perla, sits lower in the hills, at 1,600 meters, where it is mostly the Typica variety that thrives. With six hectares of land under her care, Antonia’s annual harvest yields an impressive 2,500 kilograms of parchment coffee. Each year, between January and February, she carefully selects the ripest cherries, harvesting them with the help of her family. Antonia is married and is a mother of eight children, and together with her husband, she tends to the farm, ensuring that every plant is healthy and that the land continues to give back to them. Her children, too, are part of this story, working in the cornfields, learning from their parents what they can to forge a future, possibly, in coffee as well.
At her home, Antonia has a small wet mill where she begins the process of preparing the coffee. She ferments the beans for at least 24 hours, using a wooden canoe or drum, before spreading them out to dry on mesh in her patio. The Oaxacan sun does the rest, drying the coffee over the course of 8 to 10 days, turning the cherries into the precious parchment coffee that will later be transformed into the hot drink that connects people across the globe. The work is hard, but it’s a labor of love, carried out with precision and tradition. So we hope you enjoy her coffee, knowing it’s the result of generations of shared knowledge, shaped, too, by the care and particular dedication of woman who is also the heart of her home.
Single Farm - Antonia Fuentes
