DATE: December 1​st​, 2020

TO: Prof. Pier Le Compte

FROM: Fabiola Martínez Cruz, Nelmilian Meléndez García, Nerielis Montalvo
Rivera, Sebastián Muñiz Velázquez, and Sebastian Pellicier Pagán
SUBJECT: Progress Report on “Finca Buena Vibra”

Introduction
On November 4​th​, 2020 we, Fabiola Martínez Cruz, Nelmilian Meléndez García, Nerielis
Montalvo Rivera, Sebastián Muñiz Velázquez, and Sebastian Pellicier Pagán, visited Rafael
Rodríguez’s “Finca Buena Vibra” to complete our progress report. The progress report
consisted of working with any form of agriculture service for four community service hours.
At “Finca Buena Vibra” we performed and observed the steps of coffee production. The steps
we accomplished were:
1. Planting coffee trees
2. Harvesting coffee seeds
3. Weighthing coffee seeds
4. Grinding/peeling coffee seeds

Coffee production has multiple more steps and takes up to a week of prepping before being
ground up and sold. This report will explain and describe the steps for a successful coffee
production.

Objectives
Group Objectives
As a group we wanted to be able to understand and visualize the importance of agriculture
and the impact it may have on our lives and in our society.

“Finca Buena Vibra” Objectives

The main objectives of the owner, Rafael Rodríguez, were based around the importance of
increasing the production of local coffee in Puerto Rico. His goal is to start distributing his
own brand of coffee around the local coffee shops in Ponce, Puerto Rico.

Overview of growing the coffee plant successfully

The next time you take a sip of your favorite coffee, take a minute to think about how
extensive the production of coffee is. It starts with setting the right conditions for your coffee
seeds to grow, we learned this is crucial to the development, survival and taste. The seed has
to be planted near a certain type of tree for it to benefit from the shade and the nitrogen
concentrations it provides. After having the correct environment, the seed is set in a small
hole at a certain angle so the roots grow properly. We were instructed it is very important to
set compost on top of the seed, a fertilizer that includes potassium, nitrogen and others to help
maintain the future plant's growth. The plant must also be watered roughly once a week. In
about two years time, the plant will have produced a processable and great tasting coffee
bean.
Work Completed
Due to the large amount of time the process takes, we could not complete all the phases of the
coffee making progress. The phases we worked with directly are the following:
1. Planting
The first task of the day we began with the plantation. Instead of planting a seed we
were given the tree in a pot where we had to put it in a small hole on the ground.
These trees were provided to the owner by the government or different non-profit
associations.

2. Harvesting
For the second task we began to look for the trees that had ripe coffee seeds and
started picking it up. The process of picking had to be slightly twisting the red seed
and then pulling it towards ourselves. The seeds that we could not collect were the
green ones because they have not yet matured and to collect them would be wasting
the long effort of coffee development. In addition, other seeds that we could not
collect were the black ones since they are damaged.

3. Coffee Processing
The last phase we did was processing all the seeds that were harvested. We used a
pulping machine that separates the pulp from the skin of the coffee. While it was
being pulped, we applied water to the machine so that the seed passed faster without
being crushed.

Duration Of Coffee Production

The process of making coffee can be very long depending on the machinery you have
available. An important factor to keep in mind is that once you plant the coffee tree it can
take up to two years to give crops. Now, in “Finca Buena Vibra” the time it takes to
completely finish this process can vary between one to two weeks once harvested. They first
start harvesting the crops and then proceed to pulpit in a machine to separate the coffee bean
from its skin. The next step is to move the beans to a water-filled tank for the duration of four
days changing the water daily for fermentation. Then, the beans are moved to dry for four
more days. Once their humidity goes down to 10%, they are collected to remove the beans
that were not processed right, which can take days since this farm does this by hand. Finally,
the beans are roasted in one day to be ready to grind and brew.

Closing
Throughout this project we were able to learn about the hard work that is put into agriculture,
especially in the production of coffee. As a group we accomplished our objective which was
to understand the importance of agriculture and the impact it may have on our lives and in
our society. We also believe that our help in “Finca Buena Vibra” brought Rafael Rodríguez
one step close to reaching his goal which is to start distributing his own brand of coffee
around the local coffee shops in Ponce. Even though Rafael’s final goal was not
accomplished during our visit he explained to us that he was currently only distributing his
coffee to family relatives and friends, but that he was planning on calling some recognized
local coffee shops in Ponce to reach his final objective.

After finishing all the work, we left with a concern about what might happen to the
production of local coffee in the future. We could not help but notice that producing coffee
when you do not have a big coffee producing company or the machinery like Yaucono or
Café Rico is very hard. We became aware that in Rafael’s case, since he worked alone and
did not have all the machines to speed up the process, the production of his coffee could even
take more time than the one expected. After spending four hours helping Rafael Rodríguez,
we understood that these are the people we should be supporting and the coffee we should be
buying, we encourage the young adults in our community to support our local farmers and
distributors.
 103
Nelmilian Meléndez Garcia
# 3

Finca Buena Vibra

NMG

November 4,2020 4 hrs

8:00am -

12:00pm

harvest and removed pulp of Cotte beans

L
Nelmilian Meléndez García

Finca Buena Vibra

NOV 4,2020
.
SebastianPelticier Pagar
 University of Puerto Rico at Ponce
English Department
PROGRESS REPORT MINUTES
Meeting Date: October 16th, 2020

Call to Order:

A regular meeting of the group #3 of the course ENGL 4021 L03 of the University of Puerto Rico at
Ponce was held remotely via WhatsApp Messenger on October 16th, 2020. The meeting convened at
11:34am with Nelmilian Meléndez García as secretary. All students attended.

Approval of Minutes:
No prior minutes were approved since this was the first meeting.

Matters Discussed:

1. Nerielis Montalvo Rivera created the group chat where she added all members of group #3:
Fabiola Martínez Cruz, Nelmilian Meléndez García, Sebastián Muñiz Velázquez, Sebastián
Pellicier Pagán and herself.

2. Students agreed to do the community service hours for the Progress Report in the Atabey
Garden of the University of Puerto Rico at Ponce.

3. Nerielis Montalvo Rivera emailed professor Le Compte to check her availability.

4. Professor Le Compte answered stating the following:

a) University’s administration had not granted access to work on the garden.
b) Group #3 had to reorganize and choose farms or to do a home garden.

4. The students decided to do community service hours on a farm located on Ponce, Puerto Rico
all together.

Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 1:32pm.

Submitted by:

JIM
Mendy
_______________________
Nelmilian Meléndez García, Secretary
_____________________________
October 29 " , 2020
Date of Approval
 University of Puerto Rico at Ponce
English Department
PROGRESS REPORT MINUTES
Meeting Date: October 29th, 2020

Call to Order:

A regular meeting of the group #3 of the course ENGL 4021 L03 of the University of Puerto Rico at
Ponce was held remotely via WhatsApp Messenger on October 29th, 2020. The meeting convened at
1:19pm with Nelmilian Meléndez García as secretary. All students attended.

Approval of Minutes:
Minutes of the October 16th, 2020 meeting were approved as distributed to members of the course.

Matters Discussed:
1. Nerielis Montalvo Rivera sent the list of five farms available in Ponce, Puerto Rico for the
group to choose.

2. The students distributed farms to make a call and check availability.

Distribution:
a) Sebastián Pellicier: “Finca Reverdecer”
b) Nelmilian Meléndez: “Huerto Urbano Callejón Trujillo”
c) Fabiola Martínez: “Monte Querido”
d) Sebastian Muñiz: “Finca Buena Vibra”
e) Nerielis Montalvo: “M.T.A.”

3. Fabiola Martínez called “Monte Querido” and was notified that because of the pandemic they
were closed to public until January 2021.

4. Nerielis Montalvo Rivera got a text from “M.T.A.” stating that they were closed to public.

5. The other students did not get an answer from the other options.

5. Fabiola Martínez called “Finca Buena Vibra” and got an answered. The owner notified that he
had availability for four hour of community service for the five students.

6. Students agreed to go on November 4th, 2020 from 8:00am to 12:00pm.

Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 8:40pm.

Submitted by:

MMM
Mendy
_______________________
Nelmilian Meléndez García, Secretary
November 2M 2020
_____________________________
.

Date of Approval
 University of Puerto Rico at Ponce
English Department
PROGRESS REPORT MINUTES
Meeting Date: November 27th, 2020

Call to Order:
A regular meeting of the group #3 of the Course ENGL 4021 L03 of the University of Puerto Rico at
Ponce was held remotely via Google Meet video conference on November 27th, 2020. The meeting
convened at 7:00 p.m. with Nerielis Montalvo, secretary. All students attended except Sebastian Muñiz
and Sebastian Pellicier.

Approval of Minutes:
Minutes of the October 29th, 2020 meeting were approved as distributed to members of the course.

Matters Discussed:
1. Students discussed the important topics to consider for the Progress Report and gave ideas to
start the draft of the project. The given main ideas were:
a) Work performed during our community hours.
b) Duration of coffee process.
c) Concern about future coffee production.

2. Nerielis Montalvo created a Google Document so that the group can add their part of the work.

3. Students agreed to start writing the report at the next meeting.

Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m.

Submitted by:

November 28th, 2020

_______________________ _____________________________
Nerielis Montalvo Rivera, Secretary Date of Approval

Scanned with CamScanner

 University of Puerto Rico at Ponce
English Department
PROGRESS REPORT MINUTES
Meeting Date: November 28th, 2020

Call to Order:
A regular meeting of the group #3 of the Course ENGL 4021 L03 of the University of Puerto Rico at
Ponce was held remotely via Google Meet video conference on November 28th, 2020. The meeting
convened at 6:30 p.m. with Nerielis Montalvo, secretary. All students attended.

Approval of Minutes:
Minutes of the November 27th, 2020 meeting were approved as distributed to members of the course.

Matters Discussed:
1. Sebastian Pellicier gave the idea of adding the coffee growing conditions to the report.

2. Students started dividing the work. The distribution was:

a) Fabiola Martínez: Conclusion
b) Sebastian Muñiz: Abstract
c) Sebastian Pellicier: Body- Coffee growing conditions
d) Nelmilian Meléndez: Body- Coffee process
e) Nerielis Montalvo: Body- Work completed

2. Students began to write their parts and upload it on the Google Document.

3. Students reviewed and corrected everything that was added to the document.

Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 9:00 p.m.

Submitted by:

November 29th, 2020

_______________________ _____________________________
Nerielis Montalvo Rivera, Secretary Date of Approval

Scanned with CamScanner

 S E L F - R E F L E C T I O N O N P R O J E C T W O R K
Think about what you did in this project, and how well the project went.
Write your comments in the right column.

Student Name: Nelmilian Meléndez García

Project Name: "
Finca Buena vibra
"

Progress Report on

Driving Question:
What is the
importante ot local
agriculture ?

List the major steps of the I.

lreting in contact with your group and distributing responsa bilities .

project:
2.
Chasing Whore to do the
Community hours .

Community hours
3-
Dong the .

4. Distribuir ng part s of the

Progress Report document .

documents that part of the Progress Report

Filling
5. are .

About Yourself:
What is the most important The most important thing I learned in this project is that
thing you learned in this
it is needld to have 10cal agriculture and to be it
project: in volved in .

What do you wish you had I with

muy be
I had spent more ti me on the farm and I would have
spent more time on or done
differently: brought gardening glover to the farm .

What part of the project did There were Same pants that I think I dich
my best Workers The minute ,
you do your best work on:
.

On the
Progress Report were I was secretary and so me of the
Community
work on the farm also .

About the Project:

What was the most
The most
enjoy able
enjoyable part of this part of this
project was
visiting the
project: farm and
learning about the proles of the Coffee .

What was the least

enjoyable part of this
I think that the least enjoy able part of this project was

project: and
distributrng tasas
Whiting the report .

How could your teacher(s)

change this project to make CMD la pandemia it hard to
Because of the was
very
-

it better next time: fina a farm to do

Community service hvwrs and risk

Ot infectan su
maybe for next # me the professor can

the Service
reduce the member of
peuple that go to
Community .

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