Growing Coffee Sustainably at the Poomaale Estate: The Story of Bewild Coffee

Ripe robusta coffee cherries ready for harvest. Shot at the Poomaale Collective, Coorg

Food consumption has seen a steep turn over the last decade. We now carefully check the ingredients that go into store-bought food and look out for organically grown, chemically free food. Among other things, coffee – our beloved caffeine drink, has surely fallen into the loop of conscious consumption with demand gradually growing for sustainably grown coffee. 

You may find yourself asking the seller if the coffee is ‘organic’ or chemical free, but have you ever wondered if your coffee can be beyond organic? Can a coffee bean touched by snakes, cats, elephants and squirrels travel all the way from the heart of the forest to your cup and take your senses into the pages of The Jungle Book? Well, we don’t think it can. We know it can!

Bewild Coffee – Forest-friendly and Sustainably Grown

The Poomaale Estate in Coorg is surrounded by acres of lush coffee forests and encompassing hillocks, two freshwater lakes, perennial streams, countless natural springs and monsoon nullahs. Nestled in the heart of Western Ghats – a biodiversity hotspot – it is naturally home to abundant wildlife including big cats, small-clawed otters, elephants, bat colonies, etc. This makes our estate a perfect demonstration of co-existence.

Robusta coffee growing under the forest canopy at the Poomaale Estate, Coorg

Under this harmonious forest canopy, robust coffee grows bountiful and wild. Ever since we entered the estate, we have been receiving a generous harvest of robusta coffee cherries. We decided to make this abundance of nature available to all coffee lovers out there and thus our Bewild Coffee was born. Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do here and we adopt the same principle for growing our wild robusta coffee as well. Let us take you through how we do it.

A Step Ahead in Optimising Natural Resources 

The robusta coffee bushes at our Poomaale Estate are about 30-40 years old. Owing to the natural resilience of this coffee variant, these bushes have been growing wildly for a few years before we made Poomaale our home. Due to the lack of maintenance prior to our arrival, there was already a forest-like ecosystem in the robusta coffee plantation zones at the estate – which are now our coffee forest zones. Though this ecosystem can support the growth of robusta coffee, we are trying to bring out the best of it by optimising the use of locally available resources. We are doing this by making some adjustments to the coffee growth patches. 

Trenches are dug at the centre of every 10’x10’ growth patch. We make sure to keep these trenches shallow so as to not disturb the underground root system. Every day, a farm worker collects some dried leaves and cow dung in the trenches. As they decompose, they keep adding nutrition to the surrounding coffee plants. Surplus manure is also added to them.

Adding organic matter and manure to the trenches in the coffee forest zone at the Poomaale Estate, Coorg

Additionally, these trenches are dug against the slope of the water drainage in order to trap the running water and allow it to seep in. This trenching system fulfils more than one purpose, becoming a humble example of permaculture – our overarching principle through which we plan to become food, water and power secure.

Growing Coffee in Sync with the Natural Cycle

Commercial coffee plantations use elaborate irrigation systems like sprinklers and man-made canals to meet the year-long demands of coffee. This artificial irrigation attempts to mimic the monsoon showers, pushing the coffee plants to bloom before time. In most cases, this leads to a high yield of coffee, but the sustainability of this process is highly doubtful. Not to forget the excessive use of energy that goes into powering the irrigation systems and its subsequent load on the land that holds the plant system together.

At the Poomaale Estate, we have gone irrigation-free, letting the rich monsoons of the Western Ghats do their magic. Monsoons in Coorg arrive early. We expect the first showers by mid-March, and after about 2-3 good showers, we have our robusta coffee plants blooming! After the plants have received their fill of rain, they start to fruit. By August, berries start appearing on the plants and these berries take their sweet time to become sweeter. December starts with freckles of ripe cherries appearing in sight and by February we are all up and excited for the harvest. 

Green unripe coffee berries getting ready for the harvest season. Shot at the Poomaale Collective, Coorg.

This harvest cycle is late compared to most coffee plantations in the region, but it follows the seasonal cycle and optimizes external inputs significantly.  We are happy for our harvest wild forest-fresh harvest to arrive a little late because, today, for every kg of coffee we grow we save 130 litres of water! 

Planning a Nutritious Future

Moving ahead we have plans to plant new robusta coffee saplings which we have procured from local nurseries. The robusta coffee plant grows big and wide, hence we plan to dig out 3’x3’ pits for each sapling to give it the space it needs. These pits will then be filled with the forest floor collected from the Nature Zone of the Poomaale Collective. The highly nutritious forest soil gives the coffee sapling a natural boost to grow at a healthy rate. For this forest floor mix, we generally use ¾ part leaves, 1 part cow dung, 1 part regular soil, and a fist full of forest soil. We make this mix and directly transfer it to the pits instead of preparing compost separately and adding it to the soil later.

This allows us to add nourishment to the sapling at the very first level. The microbes in the soil additionally contribute to making soil appropriate for growth. Preparation of the compost takes up to 60-90 days, but by adding forest floor mix the process is accelerated to 30 days. The coffee sapling pits are dug out a little deeper than our regular veggie patch pits. The extra space at the bottom is filled up with logs/chipped wood to allow it to start decaying slowly at this stage and become a part of the nutrient-heavy soil that would be needed a couple of years from now. 

As the roots grow deeper, the wood decomposes and provides ready nutrients for the roots. Providing nutrition for the plant for the coming years, but working for it today. 

Harvesting with a Human Touch

Harvesting ripe coffee cherries at the Poomaale Estate, Coorg

Our wild robusta coffee is a product of intense labour (and love). From planting saplings to harvesting ripe coffee cherries, all farm activities are done by humans. Digging pits and trenches, pruning coffee plants, filling up trenches, picking cherries – we use no machines for all these activities. Our approach has always been collaborative. The workers on our farm belong to the villages nearby and being generations of indigenous knowledge with them. Making a living without having to move far away from their homes gives them a sense of belonging and that is the feeling we want to retain at the Poomaale Estate.

If nature is the only thing you love more than coffee, our forest-friendly Bewild coffee is for you! Pick your favourite one out of the 6 variants from the Bewild Coffee page and tell how you like it. You can also visit the Poomaale Estate and take a visual tour of our coffee growing process, cherry on the cake is the abundant wildlife sightings during your stay. Our environment-friendly stay – Blyton Bungalow – is sure to make your cosy Coorg visits cosier! To plan your visit, get in touch with us.