A Story About an Organic Coffee Farmer in Kutarakyat Village on The Slopes of Sinabung Mountain

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Hello Coffee Lovers
How are you today ? I hope and pray, we are all always given health and also happiness in living this life. As friends know, the world is under threat of various crises. We call it, the economic crisis, the threat of war and also the environmental crisis which is getting worse every year.

Coffee as an agricultural product is also one of those affected by this environmental and climate crisis. If you read various studies and journals it is predicted that by 2040, coffee plants will become extinct because the earth does not have a suitable climate and soil conditions for growing coffee. I read the news several years ago, at first I thought it was just "bad news" to increase news engagement. However, hearing stories from coffee farmers about decreased productivity and this problem is almost experienced by coffee plantations around the world.

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Many things can reduce coffee productivity, one of which is often discussed is soil saturation due to excessive use of chemical fertilizers, excessive use of grass poisons, and also the use of insecticides or pesticides on coffee trees. The use of these various chemicals does increase coffee production in the short term, but long term conditions make the soil damaged and barren.

Various methods are carried out by agricultural experts and environmentalists. One of them is by inviting coffee farmers to change their planting system by using the concept of back to nature or environmentally friendly. This time, I would like to invite you to meet Mr. Sembiring, one of the organic coffee farmers in Kutarakyat Village, Naman Teran District – Karo Regency, Indonesia.

Mr. Sembiring is a coffee farmer in Kutarakyat Village. I met him several years ago when I became one of the participants in a manual brew coffee brewing competition. At that time, the coffee beans used were Arabica coffee beans from Mr. Sembiring. He is a very friendly person and when I pass through Karo Regency, I try to find time to go to his house.

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Mister Sembiring House is on the slopes of Sinabung Mountain, and Sinabung Mountain is an active volcano in Indonesia. Mister Sembiring had to flee for about 2 years from his house and garden, when the Sinabung Mountain eruption occurred in 2010. When he returned, he realized one thing about the condition of the soil in his garden becoming more fertile due to the effects of the volcano. As an Agricultural Engineer, he believes that the eruption of the volcano brought fertility blessings to his plantations. He decided to manage his garden, replanting coffee and managing it with an organic system until now.

Mister Sembiring's prediction turned out to be correct, for the last few years. The coffee plantations that he and his wife manage provide high-quality coffee beans. Uniquely, almost all of the coffee bean production is purchased directly by a Catholic foundation in Jakarta, so to get the green beans, we have to order them from Jakarta. I am very lucky, because Mr. Sembiring still wants to leave one kilogram of his green bean coffee for my arrival at his house.

Mister Sembiring does not have a large area of land, he only has one hectare of coffee plantation which he plants various varieties of coffee such as Andung Sari and Komasti. Coffee production is also not too much, maybe around 750 kilograms of green bean coffee a year. However, he sells it at twice the normal price of greenbean coffee in Indonesia and he doesn't need to look for buyers, because buyers who understand the taste of coffee have come directly to him.

When I arrived at his house, Mister Sembiring and his wife were managing the production of cherry coffee which was made using a wine process so that it would produce wine coffee which is currently popular. Process Wine is one of the unique but very troublesome post-harvest coffee processing. Coffee cherries that have been harvested (must be red and ripe coffee cherries), then stored or anaerobically fermented for one month. After that, the coffee is dried in the sun to dry. The fermentation process creates a unique taste for coffee, we will feel like the aroma and taste of wine from the coffee. This wine process at first glance looks sad with the "natural" process but, for natural processes we don't need to ferment.

We discussed many things from my one hour visit here. I was able to ask, did he not invite other coffee farmers to follow his method? he laughs and smiles while answering her, he thinks no one wants to join him and he is also tired to ask and no one does. However, if there are farmers or community groups who ask for guidance on coffee cultivation, he will be happy to pass on all his knowledge to the people who come.

One big lesson for my life. Not only stories about coffee plantations that produce quality coffee flavors, but stories about the spirit of never giving up and being able to take lessons from a great tragedy.

because, I still have a lot of coffee stock, I plan to roast this green bean coffee next week and wait for my review about this coffee okay

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