Kenya Kiambu Spike AB

When asking Moses, the farm manager, why they named the farm "Spike", he matter of factly stated that the owner simply liked the name. That's reason enough for me, and certainly a name we'll remember. Spike farm was established about 12 years ago, in Kaira-ini area of Kenya's Kiambu district. This 12 hectare farm sits at 1930 meters above sea level, and is planted in SL 28, and Ruiru 11 varieties, planted in separate blocks. They recently started grafting Ruiru onto SL roots too, also on a separate farm block from the rest. All of the coffee is currently harvested together. However, next year they plan to process coffee from each block and offer variety separations, as well as blends. The coffee is pulped using a small electric pulping machine, then fermented for 72 hours to break down the sticky fruit mucilage stuck to the seed. After, the coffee is washed of the remaining fruit and then dried on raised beds for around 10 days.