Read our write-up on farm tours given by one of the co-owner's, Mausi Kühl.

Mausi Kühl with her husband Eddy Kühl are owners of Selva Negra Estate. Mausi offers personal tours of the farm. Tours usually start at the hotel. Mausi picks customers up and drives downhill through the farm. Here's an outline of different areas that are covered throughout the tour.

1. Chalets - On the drive downhill towards the farm, Mausi stops at the Boesche Chalet and explains its history. It's a five-bedroom cabin, built by Mr. Hans Boesche in the late 1800, that's how the chalet got its name. The Boesche Chalet had a lot of innovations for its time, including running water; inside the cabin there is a hammer pump. Water was brought from within the mountain through canals. Using hills a canal was built out of carving rocks, the house also had a hot water system by passing the pipeline inside the rock stove. Mausi covers all that she knows about how the farm came to be.

2. Construction Style - Mausi drives down the road and passes the offices, explaining to the tour the style of construction that matches the architecture of the hotel and her and Eddy's house around the back.

3. Organic Materials - The next stop is at the storage warehouse, where Mausi explains that the storage of all the products are made at the laboratory such as organic fertilizers and insecticide, among other items that are made there. Construction supplies are also stored in these warehouses. Mausi shows the tour the place where the steel greenhouses and other mechanics are built.

4. Methane Gas - A stop is made at the worker's kitchen. Mausi shows the methane gas reservoir, where the methane gas is stored. The methane gas is made at the farm out of the water from washing and de-pulping the coffee; also out of the cow manure. You can see the flame provided from this gas in the worker's kitchen. You will also get a chance to see the tortilla-making machine, which makes about 500 tortillas an hour and now is working with propane gas. The goal for the near future is also to make it work with the methane gas. Wood logs are also used for cooking.

5. Cows/Chickens - The tour continues with a drive down toward the cattle area. Mausi will drive past the chickens, showing the tour the two types of chickens. The egg laying kitchen and the ones served at the restaurant. The chickens are kept in a concrete floored building. Concrete floors are cleaner. The floors are washed once a week with Clorox, repainted with calcium powder and covered with rice husk. The rice husk makes the collection of the chicken manure easier and cleaner. The collection is used afterwards for fertilizer and also as part of the concentrated food for the cattle. The chickens are used at the restaurant, the kitchen for the workers of the farm and for sale, same with the eggs.

6. Fertilizer - We use the eggs shells as fertilizer. Chicken extras are used as dog food. The manure is used as fertilizer and for concentrated food. The chicken neck and legs are used to feed the ocelot at the hotel; the feathers are used inside the piles for compost.

7. Cattle/Biogas System - Next is the stable where we see the biogas system of the cattle. You will get a chance to see the preparation of the concentrated food for the cattle, done with sugar cane, Taiwan grass, gandul beans, chicken manure, and some other produces all planted at the farm. The cattle pass most of their time at the pastureland. This is work done by the Dr. Pinheiro system called intensive cattle ranching. We have about 32 small pasture areas; where the cattle will eat all the grass and deposit their manure. All the areas have drinking water, light shade, irrigation system and electric wire fencing. The idea is to keep the animals in the fields most time and use their manure as fertilizer. The irrigation water comes from water used to wash the coffee. As the cattle eat all the grass the weed has no chance to grow and this keeps the pastureland clean. This is an economical system and very much self-sustained.

   While the cows are kept at the stable for milking their manure is collected. Using the manure the methane gas is made which is used in the worker's kitchen. Also once it is decomposed, the excess that comes out of the system is used as fertilizer on the coffee plantation.

8. Coffee - After we see all the work done on the cattle area, we continue our tour by visiting a coffee plantation. Most of the time, Mausi will find an area were you can see the coffee close up. At this point people can get out of the car, touch the trees, beans or flowers (depending on the season at the time).

   As Mausi drives the tour by the plantation she will show you the different fertilizers used, such as:

   • Chicken manure with the rice husk
   • Liquefied cattle manure that comes out of the cattle bio-digester
   • Leaf litter that comes from the trees that serve as shade for the coffee, and also the ones collected from other areas

9. Mulch/Fertilizer - We make mulch out of the pruning of the shade trees and use it on the rows of the coffee so it will hold the humidity and provide nutrients on the grown. We will also see the coffee pulp transformed into fertilizer. During the year we collect from neighboring cattle farms the dry cow manure and use it as fertilizer here as well. All the garbage of the farm is collected in a dump area, separated and all the organic waste is used to make fertilizer. This is used for the flowers, vegetables and coffee as well. At the flower area, all the waste of the flowers are decomposed with worms and transformed into topsoil, also used as fertilizer.

   The calf manure is decomposed with worms as well, and used as fertilizer. There is also about five tons of fertilizer made at the farm to be used on the coffee plantation. This is made with green foliage, soil, and different nutrients added such as rice husk, cow manure, algae from the lagoon, ashes from worker's kitchen and also ashes collected from coffee mills where they burn the shell of the coffee, and some others. We also use the algae from the lagoon as fertilizer and to preserve humidity on the ground.

10. Vegetables - Afterwards the tour heads to the vegetable area where Mausi will show you how the organic vegetables are grown. Organics are grown using marigold, basil, aloe, valeriana, and others as repellent of insects and plagues, and how we make the organic fertilizer for the vegetables as well.

    Mausi will show the tour the pastureland at the bottom of the farm where it is still in preparation, and compare it to the one by the stable that is almost done. Mausi will invite you to see them again in the next three-year period where they will be looking much better.

    The drive continues around the plantation so the tour can see the three different lawyers of shade trees for the coffee. How the trees provide nutrients, preserve shade and serve for housing to a lot of birds and other animals.

11. Baseball Field/Nursery - Next is a visit to the baseball field, the nursery of the coffee.

12. Flowers - Continue with a visit of the flowers installation. The farm grows all types of Chrysanthemums, Gerberas, Lilies, Callas, Baby's Breath, Ferns, Agapanthus, Gladiolas, etc.

13. Coffee - Next is a visit to the biogas from the water of the coffee, see how it is stored, prepared and used.

    Moving to the coffee buildings, we have the mill at work, during the season you'll see the machinery operating, how they take the shell off the coffee and how it's transported without water to afterwards be processed. You'll see how the water is only used to push the coffee and then recycled. Afterwards the coffee is fermented and washed with clean water, which is also treated. All the water used in the coffee facilities is treated, so the water can be used for irrigation on the pasturelands.

14. Greenhouses - Data pending, please visit again soon.