It's a beautiful story. When I was nine years old, I planted my first hundred coffee trees on a piece of land about an hour away from home, close to the river. As I grew older, I started taking coffee picking more seriously. I also cultivated other crops like beans, corn, peas, tomatoes, and lulo alongside traditional coffee. Over time, I acquired more plots of land through buying, selling, and cultivating.
About eighteen years ago, I purchased a farm called Villa de Tulia in the same village where my dad's farm, Primavera, was located. Gradually, I acquired a neighboring plot and merged them together, naming it Villa de Tulia here in Acevedo, Huila.
After many years of growing traditional coffees, we began producing specialty coffee a few years ago. This involved renovating the farm and focusing on exotic varieties that would be more profitable. Currently, we have around twenty hectares of land with approximately twenty different coffee varieties, although some crops are not yet in production.
But the most beautiful aspect of our journey is that we have created a family business. I work with three of my four children and my wife. Even our eldest child, who lived in Bogotá for nine years, returned to the farm due to the pandemic, and now we all work together. Our dream is to transform the farm into a tourist attraction because of its stunning landscapes, including coffee plantations, bamboo forests, and a hectare of mountain.
Author: Carlos Ospina Marulanda
Translation: Ana Gómez
Photos: Luis Aníbal Calderón