Benito Perez
Las Moras

A few years ago when we were visiting the farm of Roman Hernandez in Las Moras, Honduras, two people showed up to join our visit. Often when we are visiting farms, random neighbors will show up because our visit is interesting. So we jusT absorbed these newcomers. They quietly hung out and listened. Near the end of the visit, we learned that the visitors were Benito and Maximo (Moncho) Perez who are producers for the coffee co-op in a neighboring village, Las Moras.

Since then, we have seen his farm, but we have heard very little from him. He watches and smiles. His brother, (Moncho), is the talker. Benito is shy and all the coffee farmers in the co-op know it, but they also know that his coffee is consistently rated with the highest cupping scores in the co-op.

When we visited his farm, we could see the care l quality of the workmanship in the coffee drying shed that was under construction. We could see how vibrant and healthy the coffee plants in his patch are. His brother told the story of how they had to replace their whole farm with varieties that resist the coffee rust. We saw a few of the old plants, and those plants barely had any leaves. That was a lot of work to do, a whole farm's worth of trees, and also three years without harvest. Quiet, humble, hard work.