The coffee farm (Honduras)

Visiting the Velasquez Family coffee farm in Honduras. To the left, roasting of coffee beans. To the right, green coffee beans

The stay at the coffee farm included free organic, handpicked, fire roasted and hand graded coffee!

I let Esben sleep in and served him “coffee in bed” or “coffee in the sleeping bag”. Clear weather… perfect for a hike to the nearby waterfall.

The coffee farm is located in Parque Nacional Montaña Comayaqua, so we hiked about one hour to the waterfall “Cascada de los Ensueños”. The area had gotten a huge amount of rain in May, that have destroyed the trail to the waterfall several places. Check out this bridge!

Here the trail is gone, and we wonder what was one the sign several years ago…

But the hike through the dense forest/jungle is beautiful

After about 1½ hour we reached to 75 meter tall waterfall, and we had the waterfall all to our selves.

On our way back we got these beautiful pictures butterflies with transparent wings and a fly

Husband (owner) and wife at the coffee farm. The owner gave us a tour around the coffee plantation.

Since 2001 the family have exported the coffee beans to Minnesota, where the owners brother live. The coffee is shade-grown in Honduras using environmentally friendly farming practices that protect the surrounding mountain cloud forest. The coffee farm is small, which makes it possible to harvest the coffee by hand and sun dry it with close attention to quality. The coffee beans are then exported to Minnesota, where the coffee is roasted on small batches by a master roaster. By exporting the coffee to the United States the family get a fair-trade price for the coffee, which is not possible in Honduras. Read more on their website: www.vfamilycoffee.com

To make sure that the coffee plants stays health, and to give the coffee a more flavor, there are other plants fx banana trees and orange trees, between the coffee plants. We got to taste fresh cardamom (left picture). It was so strong, that it felt like mint.

The bark from the tree was used to a special tee. Esben have had problems with his stomach for more than a week, and this tee should help. Esben got a big mug of the tee, it was not the best flavor… (left picture). But one of the four dogs got Esben smiling again. I think Esben wants a dog…

The next day the rain was pouring down…

The family was making a batch of caramels… two times a week they make homemade caramels after a recipe from their Grandmother. The caramels is made from a left over product when producing sugar from sugarcanes and butter. The batched is cooked in a big iron pot over open fire until the caramel have the right texture.

That is a big batch of caramel. We joined the family and spend about 1½ hour on eating, rolling and wrapping caramels.

Normally I don’t really like caramels, but these are the best ones I have ever had! This is the final result

Did the family speak English? No, but they spoke all the time in Spanish. We got bye with the translator on our phones. We learned a lot of new Spanish words, but we also learned a lot about growing coffee and how it is to live in Honduras. Before we left the family gave us a bag of their coffee and some caramels. We had a great time visiting the family, and they make you feel like your are a part of their family. Everybody are more than welcome to visit the family, and they will receive you with open arms.