Growing Coffee
As irony likes to show itself in many forms, I was no where else but on a Hawaiian coffee farm when I realized there was a farm growing coffee…get this…30 miles up the road from my home in Goleta, CA. I was by no means bummed about being on the Big Island to jump start my journey of coffee. My progress at Big Island Coffee Roasters was well beyond what I could have asked for. But, having the chance to go see this California coffee farm when I returned home would stay on my list of ‘must-do’s.
The farm is called Good Land Organics. ’Goodland’ is actually a nickname for the City of Goleta, as it is apparently (and obviously) quite a nice place to live. The farm is tucked into the hills, 600 ft above sea level in a unique pocket that is free from frost and fog. Thus, it’s owner, Jay Ruskey, a wise and bold business man capitalized on this growing environment and has sparked a local and national demand for locally grown, sub-tropical fruits. His claim to fame is the cherimoya and caviar limes, but he is also very successful in avocados and citrus. His property is also the experimental grounds for a potential coffee industry in the Coastal Santa Barbara Region.
Jay is working with key farm advisors from UCSB, the UC Cooperative Extension, student researchers, local farmers, Executive Director of SCAA, Ric Rhineheart and countless others from the industry to develop and analyze the progress of this project. It is still in the testing phase, but after six years it seems that their efforts have been paying off!
I have had the opportunity to volunteer with a lovely woman, named Jane, for the past three or four weeks. After two full days of organizing and labeling, we counted a total of over 1400 trees in a mixture of 1 gallon and 5 gallon buckets. There are full grown trees already planted out in the fields as well. The varietals that he has been cultivating include: Geisha, Catisic, Catuai Rojo, Caturra Amarrilo CTC-3, Caturra Amarillo B, Caturra Rojo, Cuicateco, Sarchimor CTC-3, Leroy, Pacas, Pacamara, Mundo Novo, Puerto Rico, Tekisic, Ruskey, Caturra Rojo and Condor Ridge.
The property is a small slice of heaven. The views of the mountains to the north and the ocean off to the south are just incredible. I spent my first few days in the two greenhouses, sorting, labeling and tending to the ‘keikis’ (baby coffee trees). In these protected climates, the trees thrive. As Jay calls it, they are hospitals for plants. Last week, it was our task to go harvest ripe cherry for seeding new trees. As I trucked along the hillside, rummaging through the leaves and excitedly finding bunches of ready for picking, luscious red cherries, I thought….Pele (the goddess of the Big Island) must still be watching over me.
With any luck, I will have more experiences on that farm to share. I have a feeling this project will be one that makes history. As for now, I am thankful to have a good reason to wear my boots and play in the dirt and sunshine. Oh yes, how could I forget: the perks of working here include being able to fill your kitchen table with as much fruit as you can take home: white grapefruit, lychee!, passionfruit!, blood oranges, caviar limes!, cherimoyas!, navel oranges, kaffir limes!, and avocados. As all of these are worthy of an exclamation mark, the ones I am clearly excited about are obvious. Tropical living: right here in my backyard.
