Saúl Melara

Here we are in 2015 after walking through the farm and reviewing the processing of the coffee on the farm & at the house. All initial processing and drying happens at the family house.
Saul talks about how he cares for the coffee on this newly planted steep slope of the farm and how nutrition needs of of the plants are different than other sections that are older. In the distance over the next mountain range is the border with El Salvador.
Saul Creates healthy organic mulch to be used in the coffee feilds to restore vitality. All of the products from farming and processing are converted back to mulch and used to reinvigorate the soil in a truly sustainable process.
Waiting for the coffee cherries to fully mature for picking. As each cherry becomes blood red, it will be hand picked from these trees.
Saul is drying the coffee in pergamino (parchment) on his covered raised beds, allowing for even drying for best quality.
The dried parchment ( pergamino) looks like this when fully & evenly dried. Held here by Saul's daughter. This last layer of 'skin' on the dried coffee will be hulled & removed ebfore the coffee is exported to us.
Saul sometimes works with our friends at COCAFELOL, a Co-Op that heps farmers in that region finish the processing of the coffee to prepare it for export. Here are solar dryers at COCAFELOL.

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Saúl Melara began farming in El Pinal, San Marcos, Ocotepeque, along with his wife and children. El Pinal is a remote hamlet with about 150 inhabitants located about two hours away from San Marcos (10,000 inhabitants) during the dry season. In the rainy season, it’s hardly possible to drive on El Pinal’s dirt roads even with a four wheel drive vehicle, and the hamlet is sometimes cut off from the world for days in a row.

We met Saúl and his coffee while judging the Honduras Cup of Excellence (COE) competition. COE is the only program currently in existence that mirrors the work we do in building relationships directly with our farmers, that is based on the quality of the coffee and desire to achieve it consistently.

In 2007, we were able to try Saúl’s coffee both in the COE that year and in a special Western Honduras cupping event that we were invited to judge in Santa Rosa de Copan….the gateway to Occidente & high quality coffee. In both instances, we were delighted with the quality (assessed in blind tasting, not knowing it was his coffee until the end). We immediately searched him out way up high at 1700 MASL in the Ocotopeque region of southwest Honduras, right along the El Salvador border.

Saúl’s farm is in the Cerro Negro mountains among protected areas of flora and fauna, water producing mountains and beautiful touristic landscapes.

While visiting his farm, we began by talking with Saúl about how we could work together…not just one year but also how we could support his quality efforts for years to come! We learned that Saúl’s farming techniques are organic in order to avoid contamination of the water sources in the beautiful El Pinal forest, and the farm’s maintenance activities are directed toward environmental protection and care.

All these years later we are proud to say we have been able to consistently support his efforts, buying most, and often all, of the harvest and supporting his family of 9 children.

Saúl plants mostly Pacas on his windswept hillsides that are covered by pines (hence the name) and three species of maple, avocado trees, along with other more tropical shade plants such as pepeto or Ice Cream Bean, a native plant from Central America, Colombia and Venezuela that drops fruit during the wet season and is a staple of the local diet.

He has his own depulper and wet mill and uses a double-decker, raised bed greenhouse for drying, before taking his seeds to a beneficio for final milling. He has a quiet and competent grip on the factors making this coffee so great, and we are truly honored to be able to support his efforts every year.