Colombia Manos De Mujeres Washed Process

Region: Nariño, Colombia

The translation of Manos De Mujeres is Hands of Women.

The altitude of this farm is between 1600 and 2100 meters above sea level.

The farmers pick their coffee during the day and depulp it in the afternoon, typically fermenting the lots for 16–24 hours dry. The coffees are generally washed two or three times before being dried in small "casa elbas," mechanical dryers, or parabolic dryers. Mechanical drying takes 25–40 hours, while other drying structures can take up to 15 days.This specific lot is produced by FUDAM's own Manos de Mujeres, a subgroup of women who are all FUDAM members.

Agrarian and Environmental Foundation for Sustainable Development (FUDAM) is a 300-member association of organic-certified (and Rainforest Alliance–certified) growers that was founded in the year 2000 by just seven producers who shared a vision of sustainable agriculture as well as environmental protection and development. This group of smallholders women producers lives in and around the small municipality of La Unión in Nariño, where the terrain differs greatly from in other coffee-growing areas like Cauca: Instead of walking up from the town to the farms, as elsewhere, here the towns are at such high elevation that the farms are typically lower elevation, surrounded by high peaks and rough road.

FUDAM's membership believes firmly in the principles of sustainability that drove them to band together in the first place. When asked recently why the group continues to farm organically despite mounting pressure to rely on chemical inputs, the association’s leadership explained, “This is just how we live, these are our values and our way of life.”

Washed Process

Varietal: Castillo