(Des Moines Register) Des Moines residents George and Jan Davis are farmers. But their farm is in Panama, not Iowa.
A cup of coffee years ago eventually sent the Davises, who live in Beaverdale, some 3,000 miles south, to Panama. There they started their small coffee farm high in the mountains near Boquete, near Costa Rica. Now they are selling the end result of the crops they grow in the four Grounds for Celebration coffee shops they own around Des Moines.
The Davises started their coffee empire with their first store 16 years ago adjacent to their current location in Beaverdale.
“We were both coffee nuts,” Jan said.
They were inspired by George’s mother, Cecilia Rivera Gannon, who would bring coffee samples back from her native Panama for George and Jan to try.
“It was roasted in a cast-iron kettle over an open fire,” Jan said. “We’d never tasted anything like it.”
“A lot of people don’t know about Panamanian coffee,” George said. “It has a nuttiness. Panama is very well known for its mild coffee. It’s a well-balanced flavor with some fruitiness and nuttiness. It also has a clean aftertaste.”
George’s maternal family, the Santa Marias, live in the Chiriqui province of Panama, which is in the mountainous highlands of the country. The fertile volcanic soil of the region makes it ideal for agriculture. The Santa Marias had grown sugar cane and raised livestock, but they had never grown coffee because it’s an expensive and sometimes tricky crop, George said.
But he and Jan decided to go into coffee farming after visiting in 2003.
They started with 12 acres, which they expanded with a new test plot. They now have 5,000 plants, George said.
“We want to see if we can plant differently to get higher production,” he said. He and Jan hope to travel to the farm in March to check on their crops.
Harvest time is in mid-December, they said, and it takes four to five years before a crop is ready for harvest. George’s family in Panama tends the farm for them, and George and Jan try to get down there at least once a year.
“It’s been a labor of love for us, but especially for them,” Jan said of the Santa Marias.
After the beans are harvested, they need to dry for 90 days before they are roasted. Once roasted, they should be used within a couple weeks.
The Davises hope to have a batch of coffee beans from this year’s crop in late spring. They’ll offer it for sale at all their stores, and the supply should last for a couple months. They have named the coffee Don Lorenzo Especial, for George’s cousin, who heads up the operation at the farm.