As I return to writing about coffee origins, I wanted to first share of the more direct relationships I have, especially this one, because he will be at the McCutcheon Mount Vernon Farmers market this week, November 27, 2024. These relationships continue to develop as my business blossoms and small farms find me, or in this case, I find them. In 2021 I came across a podcast from a guy I used to enjoy watching online sometimes. He spoke to Martin Granda of Siempre Verde Coffee Farm in Pinchicha, Ecuador. I immediately reached out to Martin, since I had been on the hunt for a reliable source of Ecuadorian coffee. From there our relationship has grown and in many respects, he might be one of the closest relationships to our farmers markets.

To begin the Granda farm is located just north of the equator, with in the Andes Mountains, 1500 meters above sea level. The Granda family is a 3rd generation coffee farm, that produced until the 90’s, shifted it’s focus, but then through a government initiative found it’s way back to coffee in 2015 when they saw the potential in the growth of specialty coffee. Vicky and Ramiro run the farm, and their son Martin handles the customer relations of the business. After discovering the farm and connecting, Martin would visit my farmers markets in 2023, where he did a roasting demonstration and spent the day enjoying the atmosphere at my market in Alexandria, VA. He also delivered my 60 kilograms to the market. How often do you see that?

The next year, he would visit my market in Annandale when he came to Virginia again. This was a special day since we have Ana’s Twist, they are an Ecuadorian family, that specializes in Ecuadorian foods. It was another beautiful experience and I learned Martin’s connection to our state, as he attended school in the area, and has other connections. Between these visits, and visiting his facility in Massachusetts for Thanksgiving 2023, we continue to grow with each other in our path. My hope is to visit the farm in the near future as I begin to experience travel more regularly now that the travel industry is normalizing again, as well as my life. Many wonder why I stopped traveling, but when you have a pandemic at the same time as starting a business and a family, it was God’s little way of saying, just be still and don’t worry about running around at the moment.

In this closing paragraph, I want to share a couple small thoughts as I continue to learn more about Ecuador. In addition to being a country on the equator, they are also a country that uses the U.S. dollar for their currency. They are American friendly, in addition they were an indigenous country before being colonized and incorporated into the Inca empire. Shortly after that the Spanish empire did the same. In 1820 they gained independence as part of Gran Colombia, and sovereignty in 1830. It is home of the Galapagos Islands and is 1 of 17 megadiverse countries, meaning it has great biodiversity, harboring the majority of the Earth’s species. I hope to visit this country in the near future and share a greater depth of the people and it’s experience.