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Sítio São Luiz Gonzaga was inherited by the current owner, Luiz Gonzaga de Araújo, whose family is from traditional coffee growers of Southern Minas Gerais. In his lands, at an average altitude of 1,000 meters, he only plants the Catuai variety.
Topography, climate conditions and the favorable soil characteristics led the current owner, who is an agricultural technician to opt for coffee plantations following the tradition of his family, who began producing natural coffee in the 1960s.
About seven years ago the whole plantation of renewed and the Catuai variety was planted in the form of mechanized lines and 3m by 1m spacing. Recently Sítio São Luiz Gonzaga started to implement its processing structure with the construction of a concrete terrace measuring 3,000m2 and the installation of a washer, a cylindrical drier and a pulping equipment.
Coffee processing system
The pre-selected lot was picked manually at the end of July, from a piece of land measuring 3 hectares, at 1,000 meters high. Coffee was washed two to three times a day, to preserve the natural characteristics of the beans and to avoid fermentation or any other occurrence that could hinder the coffee in pergamino.
During two days after the beans were washed and pulped, they were dried on a concrete terrace and then on a suspended and covered terrace in thin layers of 3cm average, to enable their total exposure to the sun and maximum ventilation.
The coffee beans were rotated between fifteen to twenty times a day at times of higher humidity during one or two days, and then they were transferred in pergamino, to a cylindrical drier with indirect heat, until their humidity reached 11ºC.
After drying, the lot was bagged and stored in pergamino until it was deposited in the cooperative COOXUPÉ, in Guaxupé - State of Minas Gerais. Since the farm does not have facilities and equipment to pulp the cherry beans, the pre-selected lot was totally processed at the Fazenda Cachoeira do Cambuí's facilities.
Concern with quality
Concerned with the need to have the appropriate infrastructure to allow the total processing of pulped cherry beans at his premises, Mr. Luiz Gonzaga Araújo, in a partnership with his brother, Antônio João de Araújo, owner of Sítio Santo Antônio, will make investments in equipment during the coming crops to obtain even better quality coffees.
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