Vale do Sol Farm was founded by Alexandre Garcia Capelo, he began as a small coffee producer. His son Antonio
Wander Garcia studied as an agricultural engineer researching fertility and coffee and nutrition. He continued in his
father’s footsteps; becoming a producer and he has dedicated his life to studying, learning and producing coffee.
Maintaining the farm has been family endeavour as both crop cycles, prices and structural reforms require bot
philosophy and creativity to survive as coffee farmers. Sul de Minas is characterised by the Cerrado although the Vale do Sol encompasses tracts of Atlantic Forest. Withinall these diverse habitats there is a great array of flora and fauna as landscapes varying between fields and dense
forests. The yellow ipe, the cerrado rose, the buriti and the babassu are some of its characteristic plants, throughout
the farm one can find anteaters, armadillos, tapir, pampas deer and the elusive maned wolf. In addition to land
dwelling mammals there are a rich variety of birds and insects.
The farm is focused upon the family’s endeavor of good agronomic practices: the Garcia family underpin the roles
of integrated weed management, cyclical management, pest and disease control to ensure economic stability. The
farm aims to produce the best coffee cherries that they can, after that careful management of the post-harvest
process is crucial to preserving the integrity of the quality. Antonio has recently focused on anaerobic processing;
by installing conditioning bins and focusing on an array of differing drying and fermentation techniques the farm is
able to maximize its income. This has resulted in some truly great coffees.