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Fazenda do Condado, one of the farms of the Junqueira family, was the home of Antônio José Ribeiro de Carvalho (the "Old Man of the Condado Farm"), father-in-law of the Baron of Alfenas, married to Helena Nicésia Junqueira de Andrade, who had 15 children. The current owners, Ibraim and Marly, belong to the 4th and 5th generations of the "Old Man of the Condado Farm". They are married and have five children: Ricardo, Pedro Paulo, Nazira, Maria Wilma and Maria Aparecida.
Located at a distance of only 5Km from the City of Carmo de Minas, at the Mantiqueira Mountain Range rim, at an altitude that varies between 1,100 and 1,370 meters, the farm is privileged by nature with many water sources and fertile lands, appropriate for coffee plantation and cattle raising.
Currently, Condado Farm has 14 brickwork houses with sanitation, where 23 employees and their families live. There is a football field for their leisure and a school for the farm's and surrounding properties' children.
Coffee processing system
Harvesting is performed using the derriça on cloth technique [enfolding a coffee tree branch with the hands and sliding them where the beans are, letting the beans fall on a piece of cloth], the region's traditional way of picking coffee. Furthermore, harvesting is elective, ensuring that only the ripe beans of the planting fields are picked. The beans are then immediately transported to the processing center.
Subsequently, the coffee beans are washed in a mechanical washer. Hydraulic separation of the beans according to their density allows obtaining two types of beans: bóia beans consisting of lighter beans, and green and cherry beans. The green and cherry beans are transferred to the pulper and are processed by the humid system, obtaining "pulped natural" and green coffees. The lots are separately transported to the cement terraces and maintained separated until the end of the process. Green and bóia beans - if required - are transferred to the driers to finalize the drying process. The cherry beans are dried on terraces until they reach the required humidity level.
The dried and clean coffee beans are packed in 60-Kg bags. The whole production is sent to the Coffee Cooperative (COCARIVE), where the bags are stored until the time they are sold.
Concern with quality
Commitment to quality, the trend in the coffee business worldwide, has been constant at Fazenda do Condado, and its purpose is to increasingly improve the quality of its products, year after year.
To achieve its objectives, care goes beyond coffee processing. It also includes special care with the environment (soil, water and air) and concern with the quality of life of its collaborators, without whom it would be impossible to reach the desired quality level.
The producer is a member of Aprocam (www.aprocam.com.br), an association that gives priority to the production and commercialization of specialty coffees.
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