Rare, Wild, and Delicious Coffee! 

 

Rare because this landrace of arabica coffee has become practically extinct from it’s place of origin in Africa and it is not cultivated anywhere else in the world.

 

Wild because it is not a ‘selection’ or hybrid variety created by coffee breeders for maximum yield. Plus, it is grown here in a wild ecosystem.

 

Delicious because we grow and process this coffee in a 100% natural way. Absolutely no chemicals are used on this entire farm and all our coffee plants are ‘sown by birds’. 

 

Wof Zerash!

Wof zerash is an expression in Kafi noono language to communicate that coffee is not planted by humans, but is sown by birds. 

Birds generally select the most delicious and healthy fruits in nature. They get nourishment by eating these fruits, while the seeds are returned to the soil, ensuring that the most healthy seedlings survive and grow into coffee trees. On this farm, we keep the ecosystem diverse and chemical-free: this attracts plenty of birds who eat the best coffee cherries and give us the best seedlings. We nurture the seedlings in our forest, handpick only the burgundy red coffee cherries, and dry them naturally in shade. This is the secret of our coffee! 

 

The Journey

 

Haribhau Paranjpye, my great grandfather, was a talented botanist. From his assignment in Mesopotamia in 1923, he brought back a few seeds of Arabica coffee which he planted at his home in Pune city. Haribhau’s personal garden was full of rare and interesting plants which he collected over his long career as a Horticultural Officer serving with the Bombay Presidency. 

 

My grandmother Vimala also nurtured a beautiful garden where she planted some of Haribhau’s coffee seeds. These had grown into 12 feet tall trees by the time I was eight years old. I remember her harvesting the coffee cherries in winter, drying them in shade, roasting them on a pan and brewing them like she would brew her cup of tea. Things were simple back then and I still remember the enchanting flavour of her coffee! 

 

Later in 2008, my grandmother and I made 150 seedlings from the coffee trees that grew in her garden and planted them at Gorus farm in Nanegaon. Today, we have more than 2,500 coffee trees growing under the dense canopy of native trees and intermixed with spices such as turmeric, ginger, and black pepper, and fruit trees such as mango, avocado, mangosteen, jackfruit, mulberry and many others.

 

Until recently, we were not aware that Haribhau’s coffee seeds were actually a rare treasure! Genetic fingerprinting done by a French Lab in January 2023 revealed that this coffee belongs to the Ethiopia Legacy mother populations and has become very difficult to find in it’s place of origin. The montane cloud forests of Kafa, Ethiopia are the center of genetic origin and diversity of Arabica coffee. Local communities traditionally didn’t cultivate coffee, but ‘gathered’ it from wild coffee trees growing in this region. Such wild Arabica landraces have become rare, mainly because of habitat loss due to deforestation, and the industry’s focus on ‘high yielding varieties’ or ‘selections’ that align better with large-scale commercial monoculture plantations of commodity coffee.

 

To honor Haribhau’s botanical genius, acknowledge the Ethiopian heritage of this coffee, and recognize the need for conservation and revival of wild Arabica landraces, we have named our coffee ‘Haribhau EL1923’. 

 

We are happy that you are part of our journey now, and we hope you enjoy walking through our forest coffee plantation!

​

Ashwin Paranjpye