Did I mention that it is very beautiful? This is the bungalo we stayed in, draped in vines and nestled in a bed of ferns. The farm is a sort of retreat-resort and has many small habitations like this, as well as a full restaurant with homemade breads, cakes, cheeses ... all vegetables and meat coming from the farm

And here is one of your hosts at Selva Negra. Mousie, a nickname that stuck, and her husband Eddie Kuhl, operate the farm. The Kuhl family emigrated from Germany and are part of the European community that came to Matagalpa in the late 1800s. This is the garden adjacent to the Kuhl house on the farm.

Another picture of the farmhouse garden. You can find out a bit more at www.selvanegra.com

A basketball court at the end of a drying patio for coffee.

Eddie Kuhl is a farmer, a historian, and a bit of an artist. My favorites were his paintings in the coffee mill explaining the farm and its processes.

To the right, a diagram of their non-contaminating coffee-pulp/muscilage system. Muscilage is the fruity layer under the skin of the coffee cherry. It was traditionally washed into the streams after the wet-processing of coffee, but this is a natural contaminant of the water supply. Eddie's system takes care of this in a clever way.

They have a larger roaster that comes from Guatemala, still quite crude. The entire chamber tilts to dump the batch, like a huge Jabez Burns sample roaster. And notice the unique roast chamber door.