Colombian coffee: Human profiles III

OBDULIA PEÑA

This courageous woman, widowed many years ago, raised and educated four children who are now active professionals. She runs 1.5 HA Finca La Isla near the tidy village of Pueblo Nuevo in the Guayabal de Síquima municipality, where she lives with one of her daughters and a granddaughter, who assist Doña Obdulia in the finca´s chores.

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Doña Obdulia personally reviews and supervises all stages of the coffee process, weeding and composting, harvesting, pulping and drying and participates in the bean selection so she can guarantee the best quality.

Additionally and, in spite that her reading and writing skills are not the best, she keeps all the finca documentation properly filed and maintains handwritten records and registries of all her crops.

La Isla is too close to a creek that swells in the rainy seasons and threatens to flood it, but Doña Obdulia has managed to control the waters as well as her age-related health issues and still dedicates her life to what she loves most: producing good organic coffee in one of the prettiest and best preserved fincas in the region. She constantly presents her case at the tutorials hosted by Alicia and Isaura at Finca El Carmelo (http://www.roaste.com/CoffeeBlogs/Gazy/Colombian-coffee-human-profiles).

Many people write about the beans, the equipment and the processes. My aim is to expose the names and lives of the persons who dedicate their lives to coffee, not as a commodity but as the fragrant fruit of their loving work.