Growing and Harvesting
Coffee naturally grows in forests with light cover. Unfortunately shade-growing is rare in Jamaica these days.
Rowan’s Royale coffee is currently largely shade-grown with shade tree acreage expanding each year. We are replacing shade trees downed in hurricanes and have added more than 150 over the past two years.
We are completely free of chemicals and in compliance with organic standards (see below).
There have been no chemical pesticides, fungicides or herbicides used on the farm for the last 30 years and no inorganic fertilisers for 25 years.
We compost, make our own foliar fetlisers and garlic-based pesticide sprays to limit the amount of off-farm inputs. We have also developed a system of rain-water harvesting as we are a rain-fed farm.
All picking and washing is done by hand, as is our quality control: sorting, checking and sizing.
Where other producers use electric or gas-powered driers for speed, our coffee is sun-dried for a superior taste, then roasted to customer specifications and vacuum-packed to preserve freshness and flavor.
We companion-plant greens and root vegetables, turmeric, asparagus, ginger, lemons, bananas, plantains and flowering plants to ensure soil health and support native flora and fauna including a robust bird population. Like our coffee, all our companion plantings are grown in accord with organic principles and the requirements of our organic certifications.
All members of the farm team attend organic workshops and seminars to keep abreast of emergent best practices – knowledge we share with our neighbors, schools and other learning centers and farmers across the Caribbean through workshops that we run.
Organic Certification
Rowan’s Royale was first certified in 2002 by BCS OKO, for both on and off-farm production. As of 2004 it has been certified by CERES GmbH (German y) initially to EC 2092/91, NOP (USDA) and now to COR (Canada) and JAS (Japan) organic standards as well.
The German Certifying Agency inspects the farm once a year to ensure that RR is in compliance with all the organic regulations and legislation in the EC and North America and as of 2009, Japan.
The farm is a member of the Jamaica Organic Agriculture Movement, and Dorienne is a member of the Jamaican Coffee Grower’s Association, an association of mostly small farmers.
Our Current Organic Certificates
 |
 |
 |
 |
| COR #54328 | Non EU Agriculture JM-BIO-140 EC 834/2007 & EC 889/2 008 Certificate #54326 |
JAPAN #54018 | NOP #54327 |