Los Lirios

From the outside, Hilda Mejía and Álvaro Ramírez Jáuregui look like shy, tranquil farmers. However, after a few minutes of conversation, you realize first impressions are not always true. The couple behind Finca El Sauce enjoys discussing politics around the table and has a long history of work with economia campesina (peasant economy). Their passion for coffee is fuelled by a sense of social and environmental responsibility that translates into every aspect of their farm. They haven't renewd their organic certification for 2021, yet their practices remain organic.

Being a coffee grower was Álvaro’s childhood dream. Unlike his wife, he didn’t come from a farming family. Born in Tolima, his boyhood coincided with the pinnacle of the FNC (Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia), a time when Colombian coffee was thriving. “The coffee farms were the best ones. They always had light and water pipelines. Growers had status. The FNC had a bank and exported 75% of all the country’s coffee”, he recalls. Álvaro nursed this vision throughout all of his adult life. He combined his savings with Hilda’s, a systems engineer, to buy El Sauce in 2003.

Despite not having direct experience with farming at the time, Álvaro had spent years traveling the country first as an agricultural advisor and consultant and later executing projects in environmental development. El Sauce is not all about him, though. They both wished to build a profitable farm and help generate more work in the countryside. “We try to help our neighbours, all coffee farmers as well, and show them the benefits of environmental practices. We know we can’t just tell them what to do. They won’t believe us,” Hilda explains. “That is one of the reasons why we want to be successful. Then we can lead by example,” Álvaro adds.