Michiza

Pluma Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Mexico

“Hilaria Ramos Hernandez, a 72-year-old widow with four grown children, works her coffee plots alone. When asked how she feels about coffee, she gave me a mischievous grin and said: ‘Me ENCANTA el corte de café! (I'm enchanted with the coffee harvest!)'…
Hilaria grabs her machete and nimbly leads us up the mountain, whacking at the underbrush to clear our path as we go. Hilaria does not look like someone planning to slow down any time soon and has been renovating her fields with new trees these past years. She takes us to a section of picture-perfect, 3-year-old trees. Planted in clear lines along the contour of the slope, her trees are full of plump, green berries, well-spaced and healthy, covered with staggered layers of shade cover: nitrogen-fixing Guajiniquil and Leaukaena trees, and a number of fruit and hardwood trees.”

-Monika Firl, Cooperative Coffees Producer Relations Manager