When people picture work on a coffee farm, they usually picture harvest: ripe cherries, full baskets and a busy team moving through the trees.
February 2023 looked different at our family farm in Apaneca, El Salvador. The harvest was finished. The ground was dry. From a distance, you might have thought there was not much to do.
I saw a month that could shape the next season.
We needed to decide which trees to prune, which parts of the farm needed more attention, and what work we could afford. None of that makes for a dramatic photo of coffee cherries. It matters enormously to the people growing them.
What happens on a coffee farm after harvest?
The answer depends on the farm, its climate and the condition of its trees. On Finca Argentina, our priorities that February were pruning older coffee lots, walking the farm to assess plant health, and preparing a budget for the season ahead.
The dry weather was part of every decision. We had received only a passing shower of about 2 millimetres on December 31, according to our farm notes, and had seen no rain since. Daytime temperatures had reached around 30°C, dropping to roughly 16°C in the evenings. Those are observations from that season, rather than a forecast for every February in Apaneca.
If you’re joining this series here, Episode I introduces Finca Argentina and the longer journey from farm to roaster.
Why do we prune coffee trees?
Coffee trees need new, productive growth over time. Pruning helps us manage older or less productive wood, control the shape of a tree and make room for future growth. How much to cut is a farming decision, not a rule you can apply to every plant in the same way.
That year, we were trying something different in many of our older lots.
Previously, a collaborator would assess each tree and decide which branches to remove using their experience. We called this appreciative pruning. I value that knowledge: someone who has worked among the trees for years notices things that do not fit neatly into a spreadsheet.
For the 2023–24 season, we also wanted to see how a more systematic approach would work. The team pruned selected rows in a consistent pattern, shortening lateral branches and topping the trees to encourage new branching. Then we would watch how the plants responded.
It was an experiment, not a declaration that one approach is always better. Farming gives you plenty of opportunities to be confident in a plan—and then to go back outside and see what the trees think of it.
What were we looking for during our farm walk?
After harvest, we can step back and assess the condition of different areas. In February 2023, we identified roughly three acres that appeared to need replanting. That meant considering the work and cost as part of our plan for the coming season.
We also saw signs of coffee leaf rust in some areas. Leaf rust is a fungal disease that affects coffee leaves and can reduce a plant’s ability to produce a healthy crop. Our immediate job was to assess where we were seeing it and plan an appropriate response, while also considering the trees’ nutrition and the dry conditions.
I originally wrote that we were planning foliar treatments in March. That was our plan at the time, not general advice that every farm should spray on the same schedule. The right response depends on what is happening in the field, local conditions and guidance for that farm.
Why is the bank budget part of the coffee journey?
This is my least favourite part of the season. I would happily spend more time among the trees and less time debating numbers with a bank.
But our budget determines which work can happen and when. Pruning takes people and time. Replanting requires an investment before a new tree produces coffee. Disease monitoring and other farm care have costs too. To request working capital, we had to put those plans on paper and work through what was affordable.
When I say coffee quality begins at the farm, I mean this work as well as careful picking and processing. Someone has to make the decisions that allow a farm to keep caring for its trees year after year.
What does this mean for the coffee in your cup?
You won’t taste “February pruning” as a flavour note. But good coffee depends on healthy trees, attentive people and a farm that can plan for the next harvest.
One coffee that connects our Calgary roastery directly to those decisions is our family-grown El Salvador Bourbon. When you read its tasting notes, there is a longer story behind them—including quiet months when the work is mostly walking, looking, deciding and, yes, budgeting.
That was February at Finca Argentina in 2023. The harvest was over. The next season was already underway.
Alejandro