Rigoberto Mancía Sr. and Jr., CCD and El Roble Farms

I, Rigoberto Jr., own about half a hectare, and my father owns approximately twice that. It's not much, we know, but it allows us to feed ourselves and have a roof over our heads.

My father started with beans and corn on rented land, but as soon as he could, he bought a small plot for himself and began growing coffee. He was convinced that coffee would give him more financial security, and he taught me how to work the land from the time I was a child.

I'm happy to be a coffee farmer, but I feel shaken and weakened by the fierce forces that international markets exert on our lives. Our livelihoods are at stake, and we are too vulnerable, too dependent on factors beyond our control, to determine our own destiny and build a stable future. So we try to find ways to be less dependent on the ruthless conventional market.

My father joined Cafesmo a few years ago, and it's been incredibly helpful, so I decided to join too. Now, our coffees are FTO certified, we receive technical support, it's become somewhat easier to sell our coffees, and it's useful to be part of a larger group.

Even more exciting, I've learned to brew microlots, using my own beans, but also my father's, of course. Recently, I brewed eight bags of washed Parainema and immediately afterward experimented with a honey brew for the first time. But I decided to try only one bag of it. We're so small that we can't afford to waste much coffee on experiments. Soon, the Cafesmo taster will provide me with the profile of this microlot.

We also have bees on our farm. They increase the yield of our tiny plots of land, and now we harvest enough honey to sell some to our neighbors.

I'm full of excitement and look forward to making much more specialty coffee in the near future!