Elevating coffee Jan./Feb. 2015 California Bountiful magazine Story by Christine Souza Photos by Michelle Nunes Farmer raises the bar - and the bean

Elevating coffee
Jan./Feb. 2015 California Bountiful magazine
Story by Christine Souza
Photos by Michelle Nunes
Farmer raises the bar - and the bean

     00:00                                                                       00:00

From his Southern California farm, entrepreneur and exotic tree-fruit grower Jay Ruskey is setting out to
elevate people's coffee experiences around the world. He's making a name for himself with a crop that
traditionalists say can be grown only in countries closer to the Equator.

Raised in Hollywood, Ruskey left Tinseltown to pursue life alongside the ocean in Goleta, near Santa
Barbara. He partnered with his family to purchase 42 acres for his farm, Good Land Organics, in 1990
and since has grown exotic, subtropical crops such as avocados, cherimoyas, passion fruit, dragon fruit,
finger limes and caviar limes.
He now also grows, processes and roasts his own specialty coffee varieties, with Good Land Organics
holding title as the first successful commercial coffee farm in the continental United States.

"The whole coffee world is blowing up," said Ruskey, who harvested, roasted and bagged his first coffee
crop in 2008. "Today, specialty coffee is

treated like wine was 10 years ago. It is
emerging; people are appreciating it for its
flavor, for the story, how it's brewed, what
it's paired with. It is now up there as a fine
food."

Coastal coffee
Growing coffee in California is the result of
a longtime collaboration between Ruskey
and University of California Cooperative
Extension farm advisor Mark Gaskell. The
pair, after about a dozen years of research,
found a way for coffee trees and other exotic
crops to flourish, thanks to the area's
temperate climate.
Good Land Organics is located just 2 miles
from the Pacific Ocean, at an elevation of
650 feet, and Ruskey said the farm benefits
from the mild summers and frost-free
winters.
"In the tropics, most coffee is grown in full
sun, but the valuable coffee is grown in the
shade or the higher elevations, which slows
down the maturation of the bean, which
makes it a little more flavorful," he
explained. "What is done in altitude or shade
in the tropics, we are achieving with cooler
average temperatures. It just takes longer—
up to a year—to go from flower to ripe fruit
and, in turn, this creates some very unique   Good Land Organics owner Jay Ruskey is California's first
and strong flavors, which we are getting      successful commercial coffee grower.
recognized for."
Ruskey plants the coffee trees, which are actually small, flowering shrubs, sharing space among avocados
in a layered agricultural system. This system protects the coffee trees from wind and provides shade on
sunny days. It also increases productivity of the land, he said, "in a way that everybody benefits," because
he can more efficiently use resources such as land and water.

Tree to bean
Each summer, Good Land Organics harvests the ripened fruit of the coffee shrub, known as cherries,
from about a dozen different coffee tree varieties. Ruskey's trees have been growing for about nine years,
with harvest times from May through September. Coffee tours are offered during those months (see
article below) and participants can view flowering trees as well as the harvesting of coffee cherries.

"That's quite an experience because it is pretty rare to see both anywhere in the world," Ruskey said.
Each cherry on the coffee plant typically contains two seeds, which are referred to as beans. Ruskey
explained that harvest happens when the coffee cherries are as red as possible, "so that the sugar content
is 20 percent or above, so they are very sweet."

"The specialty market is starting to pay farmers for harvesting the cherries when they are actually ripe, so
they are beginning to get rewarded for good agricultural practices, which is resulting in improved cups of
                                                              coffee," he said.

Once the cherries are hand-harvested, the
                                                                    pulp is separated from the beans. After
                                                                    fermenting in water, the beans are sun-dried
                                                                    on racks and rotated daily. They are next
                                                                    moved into a temperature-controlled corner
                                                                    of the farm's barn to continue drying. Once
                                                                    the beans reach a specific moisture content,
                                                                    they are stored in breathable cloth bags for
                                                                    curing, which lasts two to three months.
                                                                    Lindsey Mesta, Good Land Organics
                                                                    operations manager, oversees the post-
                                                                    harvest process and quality control. She said
                                                                    once the coffee has finished curing, it is
                                                                    hulled, which means the bean's thin outer
                                                                    layer (known as parchment) is removed. It
 Operations Manager Lindsey Mesta harvesting coffee cherries.
                                                                    can then be sold in its green bean form or
                                                                    roasted.
Chris Calkins, a farmer from Carlsbad, recently visited Good Land Organics and tasted two of its coffee
varieties."Coffee goes through many stages that can make or break it in the final cup; everything is
extremely relevant to the quality," Mesta said. "What's unique about our farm is it goes through every
stage in our hands. We touch the bean in every stage, so that we can be very in control of the quality that
we are selling."
"It was as good as or better than any coffee I've tasted anywhere," Calkins said, adding that he believes
coffee is a "wonderful niche crop" for California.

"Jay's passion for the product and for trying to find ways in which you can diversify—in unique ways—
California's agriculture, I think is important," he continued. "What he has done is bring a passion for
trying to find some unique products for California that fit today's obsession or interest in food and food
crops."

Bean to cup
Good Land Organics sells the green coffee
beans wholesale to international and
domestic clients and to local coffee roasters.
The farm also offers fresh-roasted beans
through its website at
www.goodlandorganics.com. Ruskey said 8
pounds of cherries yield about 1 pound of
dried green coffee beans.
"My ultimate goal is to provide specialty
roasters and coffee shops with green beans
and they get to roast it to their preference and
then serve it fresh," Ruskey said. "There is a
time clock: Roasted beans should be served
no later than 10 days after they are roasted or
they start losing their aromas.                  Coffee cherries turn red when ripe, as shown in cup, and are then
                                                     harvested and processed into green coffee beans. Good Land
"When you drink the coffee and say, 'Usually Organics sells green coffee beans to specialty roasters and
                                                consumers, and also offers freshly roasted beans.
I need cream and sugar, but I don't need
cream and sugar; this is great,' that's my
ultimate compliment, because the coffee is a balance of sweetness and acidity and has some body," he
said, adding that those qualities—as well as flavor that gets better as it cools—are what he looks for in a

cup of coffee.
In addition to selling coffee beans, Ruskey started a nursery that specializes in coffee tree varieties. He
sells them to farmers interested in growing coffee and also to roasteries and coffee shops as décor.
"There are new roasteries popping up, new cafés popping up. It's a new awareness of a consumable we've
already been drinking quite frequently," Mesta said.
"It would just be more fun to have more people exposed to the specialty side of coffee," she added, "to
have people go look for their local roasterie and get into coffee and see where we're headed."
Christine Souza
csouza@californiabountiful.com

Coffee talk, walk and taste
To show people that coffee can be grown in California, Good Land Organics owner Jay Ruskey has
opened his coffee plantation to the public to educate them about the coffee-growing process—from bean
to cup—at his hillside farm in Goleta.
                                                                 "Our coffee educational program has been
                                                                 successful because we are improving the
                                                                 relationship people have with their cup of
                                                                 coffee; it's part of their daily ritual and we
                                                                 are just trying to expand their knowledge
                                                                 base for something that they do every day,"
                                                                 Ruskey said. "People come out and say, 'Oh
                                                                 my goodness, you are growing coffee.'"
                                                                 Good Land Organics Operations Manager
                                                                 Lindsey Mesta, who has experience working
                                                                 on coffee farms in Hawaii, said a wide range
                                                                 of people are attracted to the tours.
                                                                      "We've had industry people as well as those
                                                                      who are just interested in coffee, to people
 Jay Ruskey offers seasonal tours of his farm to educate people about who don't even like coffee who are here
 growing, harvesting and processing coffee in California. Photo       because they like tropical fruits or enjoy
 courtesy of Good Land Organics.                                      organic farming," Mesta said.
The tours also educate coffee shop and roasterie employees interested in coffee production. A significant

part of the tour is tasting the sweet coffee cherries, which creates a foundation for a coffee palate, Ruskey
said.
Aaron Olson and Kim Anderson, owners of Handlebar Coffee Roasters in Santa Barbara, have
experienced Good Land Organics' educational tour more than once.

"We think he is offering a great service to the coffee world and community," Anderson said, as Olson
added, "We put some fresh-picked coffee cherries through the pulp mill and put them in the sun to dry.
Jay has lots of different varietals."
Sites to savor
• Learn more about the products and tours at Good Land Organics.
• For an overview of the coffee industry, history, techniques and standards for coffee cultivation and
processing, visit the Specialty Coffee Association of America.
• Advance your coffee palate with courses and additional training at www.bootcoffee.com.