The Coffee Producer Toolkit is the podcast that can help you run a more profitable coffee farm. 

Hosted by coffee journalist James Harper (Filter Stories podcast) and fermentation specialist Lucia Solis (Making Coffee with Lucia Solis podcast), it's built for farmers who want to run their farm like the business it is.

Over two years we interviewed 50+ producers and experts across 20 countries. Each episode takes one part of the business — agronomy, processing, fermentation, storage, quality, sales — and lays out what the best farms are doing.

In this first episode, we show you how you can benchmark your farm against the two numbers that matter, protect your flowering without paying for irrigation, avoid the exotic variety trap that's costing farmers their harvests, stop wasting money on fertilizer your soil doesn't need, and save weeks of labor a year with tools that cost less than $50.

Follow us on Instagram - Lucia (@lluciasolis) - James (@filterstoriespodcast)  and tag us in an Instagram story. 

 Join our Patreon community to be a part of our live Office Hours sessions.  

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Cover Art Designed by Nick Hafner

Related Podcasts:

Lucia:

• #79: Farm First: Lalo Perez on Long-Term Coffee Health

James:

• The Science of Coffee: The Magic of Soils
• The Science of Coffee: Plant Genetics

People mentioned in episode:

• Fernando Castillo Guatemala
• Paulino Quintero, Colombia
• Orlando Osoria, Colombia
• Julia Ortega, Mexico
• Sergio de la Vequia, Mexico
• Hugo lopez, Innovakit

Agronomists:

• Manuel Mata, Colombia
• Sam Knowlton, USA
• Lalo Perez, Mexico 

Resources

• Anacafe technical management 
• Coffee Cascara Compost Guidelines (English) 
• Compostaje de la pulpa/cáscara de café (Espanol)
• Netafim Drip Irrigation manual
• Innovakit: abonador (fertiliser applicator) 
• Innovakit: aroplateo (tree guard for weed whacking) 
• Innovakit: selector de arvenses (low-drift sprayer)
• Innovakit: canguaro (sleeves) 
• World Coffee Research variety catalogue
• Recommended varieties: Centroamericano, H1, H16, Mundo Maya
• Coffee&Climate Toolbox
• Access Agriculture
• World Coffee Research Resources
• Barista Hustle’s Coffee Farm Management series

Our partner sponsors

The Coffee Quest

Descamex

BWT

InterAmerican Coffee

Pinhalense

Novonesis

GrainPro

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Check out our YouTube videos

AI writing shape

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Buy Roasted Coffee Here.

Check out our YouTube videos

#63: Terroir for Busy People

Dirty Jobs Hawaiian Coffee Clip

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Lalo's substack page

Ikaria Coffee (Lalo's farm + roasted coffee)

Biofilia (agronomic consultancy)

Support the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.

And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPal

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If you would like to watch our YouTube video on "What is specialty coffee"

You can watch that here.

If you are a roaster and are interested in participating in the Fermentation Project with James Hoffmann, click here -> For Roasters: Buy Fermentation Kit

Listers Movie (bird watching) it's beautiful, I highly recommend this.

Email info.luxiacoffee@gmail if you would like to discuss Pluribus or Listers Movie in our Discord server.

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Roasterkat IG Reel about rain.

YouTube version of the Q&A portion

James Hoffmann Healthy Coffee Video

The 2025/2026 Harvest has not gone according to plan.

Nick and I have found ourselves with some down time and therefore have put together this casual, end of year update on how the season is going so far. Spoiler alert: not well.

I've combined a harvest update with listener questions about fermentation.

Questions featured in this episode are:

• Are all coffees that are not anaerobic, aerobic?
• Am I aware of any efforts to design yeasts for Robusta?
• Do I think producers should create terms that further describe processing?
• How can you more precisely measure fermentation process with whole cherries?
• What's the most eco-friendly way to treat waste water and effluent?
  
  Email info.luxiacoffee@gmail if you would like to discuss Plur1bus.
  
  Support the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.
  
  And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPal
  
  Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.
  
  Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
  Intro song: Elijah Bisbee
  Support the show

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Sprudge Best Of Panama Article

Remanence and survival of commercial yeast in different ecological niches of the vineyard

Responses, Inquiries, & questions about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

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Water massively impacts your coffee's flavours. But most of us struggle to fix our water because water science is confusing...

Join me and James as we go step-by-step through:

• Why these concepts matter for coffee flavour and equipment
• How to test your water at home
• How to fix it, depending on what you're working with

Check James' website for all of the visuals mentioned in the episode.

Resources: 

#44: Are Wine Making Techniques the Future of Coffee?

Responses, Inquiries, & questions about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

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Resources:

Responses, Inquiries, & questions about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

Get a ticket to FTC-10 December 2025

Luke's Website: Pomelo Coffee Consulting

Luke's Book: Pre-Order Pomelo book

Support the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.

Office Hours with Luke: 9am (GMT-6) Friday July 18th 2025

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Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

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This episode developed thanks to Nick, who thought it would be a good time to revisit a bit of my history in coffee to reconnect with long-time listeners, and to share a bit more about myself with new listeners. We started this podcast about 6 years ago, and if you've been through all 72 episodes, you probably have a good idea about my coffee philosophies. 

But I also know that not everyone enjoys, or maybe even has the time to go back and start at the very beginning of a podcast. So we thought it would be a good opportunity to give you a bit of my coffee origin story, and a manifesto of sorts, all under one roof.

Resources:

Responses, Inquiries, & questions about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

Support the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.

And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPal

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

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Today's episode offers a behind the scenes view of how I approach a coffee producer's first time using yeast for their coffee fermentations.

We run through all of the potential variables to pay attention to when designing your first trials with commercial microbes. From cost of production to work-flow and data collection.

This conversation was recorded during a recent Office Hours session through our private Discord community. If you would like to be a part of this community, join Patreon and come participate in the discussion.

View the decision flow-chart here


Resources:

Inquiries about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

Support the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.

And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPal

Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.

Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

Support the show