About La Cueva
Tablon de Gomez municipality in one of the most famous coffee-growing areas of Colombia, Nariño. It’s an area where coffee has made an immense and positive difference in quality of life. To get to Tablon de Gomez we first fly to Bogota, then take a local flight to Nariño. In Nariño we board a pickup—one of few vehicle types that can pass through the muddy dirt roads ahead—and ride for another 2 hours.
La Cueva (Spanish for “Cave”) is a small community located in the Tablon de Gomez municipality, with approximately 200 people. La Cueva is a community with a deeply-rooted tradition of ecological protection. All producers preserve part of their farm as untouchable forest. They also leave native plants untouched in places where waterways originate, and keep livestock out of those areas. They are hyperaware that climate change is a real problem and that as it worsens, their community and others like it will bear the earliest and most severe consequences.
The producers here focus primarily on coffee, intercropping with other fruit trees that they use for shade like avocado and lemon. They also raise free-range animals such as chickens, pigs, and guinea pigs, whose manure and consumption contribute to the integrated ecosystem. The coffee-growing area of La Cueva reaches between 1200 and 1700 meters above sea level.
The producers here tell us that many years ago the area was not nearly as productive and the community members’ economic situation was worse. Back then, producers grew mostly peanuts and corn and few fertilized their land. This all changed as families switched over to growing coffee and were introduced to fertilizer, both of which have improved the community’s financial and ecological wellbeing immensely.
La Cueva shares a culture of peace and respect between neighbors. In August, everyone gets together to celebrate San Ezequiel, their patron saint. On this holiday, each house puts together a troupe at the door of their houses to join the general celebration by sharing fried guinea pig and liquor.
Producers of la Cueva are usually smallholder producers with farm areas that range between 1 and 2 hectares per farm, the varieties usually grown in the area are Castillo and Colombia in washed processes, after a selective harvest is done the coffee is sent to cement tanks where is fermented during 15 to 17 hours and then the coffee is dried in patios or raised beds between 8-12 days.
Red Fox has been working in this area with these specific communities since 2015, when the remoteness of the region meant a lack of strong market access. Now, producers here have options for where they sell their coffee, and we continue to pay premium rates so that the relationships feel mutually rewarding.
