Byron Corrales

Don Byron's grandfather, Fausto Corrales Benitez was the first coffee farmer in his family. He owned a farm named La Montanita, “ Little Mountain” near the border of Honduras and Nicaragua. Don Fausto first planted pine trees on his farm and in the middle of those trees, he planted coffee. He continued to plant coffee and pine trees all over his farm. In the 80's, the Corrales family was forced to move, because of many conflicts and the dangerous living conditions near the border during the time of war. 
  
Don Byron and his parents, Arnulfo Corrales and Benita Martinez found and purchased a farm in Matagalpa that had very nice weather. To commemorate their roots, they named their finca Los Pinos “The Pines.” When they purchased the farm it was completely bare, so they decided to hire their first pair of staff members.. two cows. Don Byron and his father started by planting beans and other vegetables on their farm, then later they created the layout. 
  
When they first arrived to the community of Aranjuez in Matagalpa, there was a water problem. Without an adequate water supply, farmers could not plant or harvest anything. Don Byron and his father took action by planting a forest of pine and other trees to create a water resevoir. Once they had secured their water source, they decided to follow the tradition of Don Fausto and plant coffee.  
  
The first coffee they planted was Maracaturra by seed. At the time they did not know much about growing Maracaturra, so Don Arnulfo just put it in the ground and he miraculously acquired a plant. This made him confident he had good quality coffee. Once they had planted enough vegetables to maintain their lifestyle and feed the family, they started to focus on controlling the quality of the coffee. 
  
In the 80's it was very hard for Nicaragua to sell coffee to other countries. Don Byron was apart of the Agronomy Association of Nicaragua and he did a test to find buyers for Nicaraguan coffee, though at this moment Nicaragua did not know much about specialty coffee. Don Byron went to the US and found a group of investors and only one came to visit him in Nicaragua, that was Paul Katzeff of Thanksgiving Coffee. During the farm visit Don Byron and Paul both recorded a verbal agreement in which stated Paul would purchase Don Byron's coffee. Knowing their shipment would get rejected going straight to the US from Nicaragua, they shipped their container to Canada and tried to truck it over the border. Unfortunately The US government found out and shut down Thanksgiving Coffee. That didn't stop Paul, he came back to visit Don Byron two years later, though this time he also had a roastery. Paul later returned as a founder of the SCAA and helped build the first cupping lab in Nicaragua. It was very progressive for Nicaragua because there was a lot of training in the lab and education about specialty coffee. 
  
Now the Unidad Familiar Corrales Martinez is composed of 4 fincas: 
Los Pinos – owner: Byron Corrales 
Santa Cruz – owner: Byron Corrales & Ileana Corrales (sister) 
Cielito Lindo – owner: Byron Corrales & Mayra Rivas ( wife) 
La Benedicion – owner: Byron Corrales & Mayra Rivas (wife) 
  
They are all situated in the mountains of El Arenal natural reserve in the community of Aranjuez, located 1450 MASL in the department of Matagalpa, close to the border shared by Jinotega. All farms use one wet mill located on finca Los Pinos; it is powered by electricity generated from a hydroelectric plant in the reserve. When it's not coffee season, he rotates 16 employees around all of his farms; during the harvest season, Don Byron employs around 75 to 85 people to help pick his coffee. Coffee picking is finished at 2pm every day and the washed process begins around 230-4pm, somedays they work until 2am. 
  
A few years ago, coffee was pulped and sorted manually on a table. When processing mills started to use machines, they had no use for all the manual labour, so they fired the majority of their staff which was predominantly women. Don Byron watched this transition and decided he would return jobs back to the people. Honey and Natural processing are more expensive for the producer, but they create more jobs because of the meticulous attention they require; moreover, the work is not very labour intensive, so Don Byron hires mostly women patieras to work in his patio. 
  
Don Byron wants his end consumers to understand all of the energy that is required to produce coffee. The energy from the sun, water, nature and the many hands over the course of 365 days, that are required to produce one cup.