Sakami SL28 AA - Kenya

Origin: Kenya
Producer: Gloria and Jarmo Gummerus
Region: Mt. Elgon
Altitude: 1800 masl
Variety: SL28
Process: Washed

AGROFORESTRY COFFEE

Sakami Ranches Ltd is a family owned farming company established in 2004, engaged in coffee, macadamia, avocado, dairy, and vegetable production. It is co-owned by Gloria and Jarmo Gummerus. Sakami Coffee is a trademark for coffee produced in western Kenya on the slopes of Mt. Elgon, at an altitude of 1800 meters.

The first coffee trees were planted in 2011, and since then we have been increasing the number of trees annually.
Currently, about 60,000 trees growing, youngest planted in spring 2018. The farm is growing Ruiru11, Batian, SL 28, and K7 varieties. All coffee is grown inter-cropped with macadamia trees with also a coffee nursery where they produce 10-100 thousand seedlings annually.

Only fully ripe cherries are accepted for pulping, each cherry is hand picked by dedicated women, up to over 100 during picking season. All this is done at the farm and only dry milling is so far done with commercial millers. In near future they intend to get dry milling equipment at our farm, so we’ll have 100% control of each green bean leaving the farm and can offer full growing and processing information for each bag.
The whole estate is equipped with drip irrigation, using solar pumps and spring water for irrigation and washing.

Coffee is grown under the shades of Macadamia trees, which contributes to improving quality as the shade increases in the course of the coming years.
Coffee is fertilized mainly with the manure from cows, goats, and sheep, a foliar spray is done on the farm from worm tea, which they produce themselves from the worm castings and manure at the worm nursery. Worms are fed with pretreated cherry pulp, targeting as closed as a possible nutrient cycle within the farm. Washing water is used to irrigate forage for cows. Coffee pollination is done by wild African bees residing in beehives around the farm. They are also cooperating with neighbors and are prepared to process and sell their coffee in case of larger quantities required than what they can produce at Sakami.

Around 50 women working in Gloria’s farm having been trying to register as an official group that can leverage the power of the community to create improved accessibility to credit and other resources. Each month they set aside some contribution from each member and will wait until they have reached 10,000 shillings that can be deposited to officially register. Gloria serves as an inspiration for women around her since they see how she conducts her business. Next to this the Sakami farm is creating agroforestry by intercropping macadamia trees between coffee, protecting all indigenous trees in and around the farm, as well as the wetland by not interfering on it, leaving natural bush sections in and around the coffee trees, having beehives around the farm, and avoiding the use of pesticides or herbicides. All "waste" such as coffee pulp and macadamia husks are fed to earthworms and worm castings are returned back to the field as manure or used to make foliar feed. Water from pulping and washing the coffee is treated in a settling pond with lime and then used to irrigate the pasture below the ponds. Next to all this, Sakami uses mineral fertilizers to replace the nutrients taken away when harvesting cherries.

The processing
Fully washed
Only fully ripe cherries are accepted for pulping, each cherry is hand picked by our dedicated women, up to over 100 during picking season. All this is done at our farm and only dry milling is so far done with commercial millers. In near future Sakami intends to get dry milling equipment at the farm, to have 100% control of each green bean leaving the farm and being able to offer full growing and processing information for each bag.

The variety
SL28
“SL28 is among the most well-known and well-regarded varieties of Africa. It has consequently spread from Kenya, where it was originally selected in the 1930s, to other parts of Africa (it is important in Arabica-growing regions of Uganda, in particular) and now to Latin America”.
From World Coffee Research