Category: Coffee Journey

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What 2025 looked like on the farm

The farmers are back at the fields picking ripe cherries. The processing area is ready for the ripe cherries. The tools get cleaned (or at least sorted). And even when the body starts slowing down, the mind keeps replaying the season—what went well, what didn’t, what we want to do better next time.

For Agnep Heritage Coffee, 2025 was a year of being more intentional. Less guessing. More observing. More tightening up the basics—on the farm, in processing, and in how we support the people around us.

It wasn’t perfect. But it felt like real progress.

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15 edible wild fruits of Benguet identified in our coffee farm

Hidden among the lush forests of Benguet province lies a treasure trove of wild edible fruits, deeply woven into the fabric of local culture and cuisine. Grown under kalasan and other shade trees, these fruits thrive alongside our shade-grown coffee, enriching the region’s biodiversity. An ethnobotanical survey by Racquel Tan Chua-Barcelo identified 36 species spread across 13 municipalities. With the help of our farmers, we identified 15 of the 36 wild fruits, indicated in bold letters as follows:

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Meeting Professor Val Macanes at the Benguet State University

It’s almost a year when the coffee project started. The first person I contacted was Chit Juan, the only Philippine coffee advocate I know of. My question was very basic. It goes to show how little we know of coffee production. I asked:

“How does one really start planting coffee? Our land is in Benguet..around 1000 meters elevation.
Do you have other resources on how to start coffee farming? An updated article?
Any information or leads will be helpful”.

Chit’s reply led us to Professor Val Macanes of Benguet State University (BSU). Prof. Val handles the Institute for Highland Farming Systems and Agroforestry (IHFSA) in Bektey, Puguis, La Trinidad, Benguet. It is a 50 hectare campus laboratory for Arabica coffee, bamboo, an apiary, and even Philippine pigs.

Institute of Highland Farming Systems and Agroforestry
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