Gregorio Gallego
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Finca La Conejera
Gregorio's farm is located on top of a mountain in the central Andes of Colombia between 1700 and 1800 m.a.s.l. The farm contains Bourbon, Caturra, Colombia and Castillo varieties. The family house is also used for pulping, fermenting, washing and drying.
Due to the economic, institutional and security problems that affect the coffee-growing industry in Colombia, many local families have been indirectly forcing younger generations out of the region and into the bigger cities in search of better opportunities, but Gregorio was one of his 9 brothers who wanted to be a farmer as his father instead of moving to Medellin.
Gregorio is a coffee farmer and a beekeeper. He uses biodynamic farming practices to create healthy soil using compost and crop rotations. It treats the compost heap with medicinal plant-based preparations and organic elements to encourage the microbial life needed for soil fertility (and which is suppressed by chemical fertilizer).
Colombia
HARVEST
October 2022 - January 2023
Gregorio has very strict cherry selection criteria on his farm. After the screening, only the ripe cherries are allowed into the de-pulping machine. The fermentation process is extended, the first one is in cherries at low temperatures and the second one after de-pulping. After fermentation, the coffee is washed and sun-dried on drying beds until 11% of humidity, and then a coffee sample is taken to the Lab.
Parchment coffee is packaged in grain-pro bags and stored at the farm until lab results are available and the price is agreed. This extended fermentation was developed with Bartosz Ciepaj while visiting the farm in June 2022.
COFFEE LAB
Score: 86/87
Variety: Caturra, Castillo and Colombia
Beans: 100% Arabica
Taste: Delightful flavors of sweet caramel and passion fruit. Well balanced taste with a slight hint of chocolate.
Coffee Lab: Rituales
Competition cupping: SENA Antioquia
Due to the onsite education provided by Colombian Artisan Coffee, Gregorio has improved his scores from 82 to 87.
Last November his coffee won the award of the best cup of coffee in a regional competition in Antioquia.
We continue experimenting new methods according to the varieties.
TRADE/MILL
January-2023
According to the score 86/87 Colombian Artisan Coffee offers to Gregorio 75% more than the market price.
Gregorio happily agreed.
The coffee is weighed and stored in Colombian Artisan Coffee warehouse under the right conditions to preserve the right humidity and quality.
At the end of January the coffee was shipped to the milling in Medellin.
The parchment is milled carefully by farm, defects are removed and screen size over 14 is packed in grain pro bags to preserve the right humidity and quality.
The sacks of Finca La Conejera are ready to be exported to the UK
BIODYNAMIC PRACTICES
5 years without synthetic fertilizers.
Gregorio started this journey 5 years ago, when he stopped using fertilizers with chemicals. His motivation started when he had the idea to bring some bees to the farm but unfortunately, they disappeared.
He is producing every component that the soil and the coffee trees need in a natural way and stopping the use of fertilizers the bees are back in the farm and they are producing amazing honey with oranges and coffee notes plus the coffee trees are producing more.
Bees play a big role in agriculture. They pollinate crops, increase yields, and give rise to a lucrative honey industry. Bees are so important, in fact, that millions are spent renting hives to pollinate farmers’ crops.