Coffee Estate

It began one morning in the summer of 2016 while Peter and I sat sipping tea on the bamboo bench in the garden of the farmstay overlooking the valley below. We were on a few days relaxation break in between the crazy travels around the villages while researching the Konyak tattoo book. Looking at the empty surrounding land Peter wondered why people in this area only grow tea.  He exclaimed that it has been his dream to grow coffee someday and this place seemed just the ideal spot to make it come true.  I replied “what is stopping you”? At that time my only knowledge of coffee was the mass strewn Nescafe across the indian market. Also i wanted to do something with the empty land because the villagers kept cutting down the jungle after every 8-10 years for their slash & burn cultivation. And thus our dreams and ideas matched perfectly….. coffee+forest.

“Sweat was on his forehead and it wasn’t even that hot he’s trembling a bit, I put a nice milk tea in front of him. He stares at it and mumbles….need coffee.”

In Jan 2017 we visited the plantations in Chickmagaluru, Karnataka. We procured the Arabica beans and self taught ourselves to start the first batch of coffee nursery. Meanwhile as the young plants grew vigorously in the nursery we began planting/transplanting thousands of native trees across the hillsides inorder to prepare them as shade for the coffee when they are transferred into the hillsides. Our goal is to eventually turn it into primary forest land while rejuvenating the underground water cycle.

This year 2019 we planted the second batch of coffee nursery which will go into the hillsides in summer of 2020.