On October 1, 2005, Finca Santa Elena owner Fernando Lima was preparing for another coffee harvest when the Santa Ana Volcano erupted for the first time in over 100 years. Located just a few hundred meters below the crater, the farm was devastated. It lost nearly its whole harvest that year, and it took five years to recover fully. Faced with an enormous challenge, Fernando realized that the devastation also brought an opportunity to regroup and improve Finca Santa Elena. Fernando replanted with the Bourbon and Pacamara varieties that established El Salvador's reputation for quality, alongside a diverse canopy of shade trees. He nurtured the farm's rich volcanic soil to help these plants thrive.
Finca Santa Elena had fully recovered by 2009 when we started working together, but Fernando was just getting started. He has continued to make improvements each season to increase cup quality and improve the farm's sustainability. One of the most noticeable improvements was installing shaded raised drying beds to promote slower, more even drying. Fernando has also installed an energy-efficient wet mill that uses 50 percent less water than his previous setup, saving thousands of liters each season. In recent years, they’ve experimented with pruning shade trees at different times of the season to measure the impact on the coffee's quality and yield.
Fernando’s intentionality in each step of his journey has helped Finca Santa Elena rise from the ashes to become a thriving, biodiverse coffee farm with some of the best quality in the region.
