High up in the Sierra Madre Mountain range, overlooking the beautiful Lake Atitlán, sits Finca Patzibir. Andres Fahsen is a 5th generation coffee producer, who’s spent his entire life on the family farm, his earliest memories are of being there with his family, and he hopes that his daughter will follow in his footsteps. The Fahsen family really does have coffee in their blood.

Using his knowledge of agro-forestry, Andres operates Finca Patzibir using organic farming practices, in order to preserve the land and life on the farm for generations to come. In between the row and terraces, he’s planted grasses to prevent top soil erosion during heavy rains, and to use the clippings for his composting program, that returns nutrients back into the soil. The farms around Lake Atitlán have a unique micro-climate due to the high humidity levels caused by the lake. These cloudy, humid conditions, with less intense sunshine, mean that fewer shade trees are needed. Andres plants his coffee trees further apart than most, to ensure the whole tree gets sunshine, and is as productive as possible.