Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Escoja su ensalada en Doka Estate

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En Doka Estate queremos compartir nuestro conocimiento para la Agricultura y Origen mediante la introducción de nuestra nueva estación de "Escoja su ensalada" donde se conjugan diferentes métodos agrícolas para cultivar los ingredientes frescos de nuestro restaurante como verduras, hortalizas y especias todos los días para que nuestros visitantes los disfruten durante nuestro  Desayuno y Almuerzo Buffet  ... De nuestro suelo fertil hasta su mesa !!

Our New Station “Pick Up your Salad”

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At Doka Estate we want to share our Agriculture knowledge and Origin by introducing our New Station “Pick Up your Salad” where we combine different agricultural methods to grow our Restaurant fresh ingredients as vegetables and spices every day for our guests to enjoy during our daily  Buffet Breakfast and Lunch…  From our fertil soil to your table !!

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Pick up your salad in Doka Estate

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Doka Estate Coffee Tour announces the opening of our new station "Pick up your salad" where visitors will have the option to learn about hydroponics method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions instead of agricultural land.

The word hydroponics comes from the Greek hydro = water and ponos = work. The roots are a balanced nutritional solution dissolved in water with all the chemical elements essential to plant development and they can grow in a mineral solution only or in an inert medium such as washed sand, gravel or perlite, among many others.
At the end of the tour this season our guests can choose fresh vegetables and herbs to be prepared by our restaurant La Cajuela staff to be served at your table.

Escoja su ensalada en Doka Estate

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Doka Estate Coffee Tour anuncia la apertura de nuestra nueva estación “Escoja su ensalada” en donde nuestros visitantes tendrán la opción de aprender acerca de la Hidroponía método utilizado para cultivar plantas usando soluciones minerales en vez de suelo agrícola.

La palabra hidroponía proviene del griego, hydro = agua y ponos = trabajo. Las raíces reciben una solución nutritiva equilibrada disuelta en agua con todos los elementos químicos esenciales para el desarrollo de la planta. Y pueden crecer en una solución mineral únicamente o bien en un medio inerte como arena lavada, grava o perlita, entre muchas otras.

Al final del recorrido por esta estación nuestros visitantes podrán escoger los vegetales frescos y hortalizas que serán preparados por nuestro personal del restaurante La Cajuela y servidos en su mesa. 

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Doka Estate Coffee Tour accomplished a 4th level of Sustainable Tourism Certification (CST)

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Doka Estate is a coffee farm compromised with their social and environmental programs. Our people believe production is not a working goal if in the process animals, plants and people are affected in a negative way. According to that, Doka Estate managers has created a sustainability group that is working hand by hand preserving nature, growing coffee based in good agriculture practices and ensuring good working conditions to their collaborators.  

Doka Estate Coffee Tour has the social responsibility of teaching their workers in topics like sustainability, adequate cropping practices and encouraging their collaborators to reach a personal development. An example of this effort is the compromised of Doka in children education. Each year, all collaborators’ children receive notebooks, pencils and cloths that are going to use in the school; and their parents do not have to take money from their salaries to buy these articles.  

Doka Estate also develops practices to contribute with preservation of environment. All water resources are protected with native plants of Costa Rica; with the purpose of protect the interaction of wild life with production areas and to avoid water contamination. Another practice is to reduce the use of chemicals in productive areas according to specialized engineers that develop researches making more controlled the management of coffee. 

We invite you to visit our Coffee Plantation and Coffee Tour our services are designed under the philosophy of natural resources protection, social responsibility practices and support to neighborhood projects.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Butterfly Coffee Garden

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At Doka Estate Butterfly Coffee Garden we have 11 different species of butterflies as the Blue Morpho Butterfly, one of the most attractive in Costa Rica


When you visit Doka Estate Coffee Tour you will enjoy in a colorful garden with 2 levels one you will walk inside our garden, plants and butterflies, you will find small rivers coming through and if you go on the side will have a upper view of the gorgeous surroundings inside the garden as the coffee plantation.

Since a butterfly farm works towards minimizing the risks to a butterfly throughout the different stages of its life cycle, the survival rate can be brought up to as high as 90% in the farm.

At Doka Estate you will find 2 of the 11 species of butterflies we carried are breeding: the Blue Morpho and the Caligo know as the Owl Butterfly. Let us tell you more about this 2 amazing species.

The Neotropical Morpho Butterflies have metallic colors, with flashes of blue and green and the ventral side is brown. The eggs hatches into larvae are pale green with a drop of dew. They have reddish-brown body with bright lime green spots or yellow dorsal hand, the larvae molt four or six times before entering the pupal stage and adults live for about two or three weeks.

The other specie we want you to learn is Caligo known as Owl Butterfly, which stands out as a moth as well for their size. The larvae grow up to 15 cm long, almost 6 inches, and adults can exceed 20cm (around 8 inches). It´s common name comes from the large eyespots on the back of the wings, which seems like big eyes as an example of defense mechanisim.

If you want to visit Doka Estate Butterfly Coffee Garden please visit www.dokaestate.com

Monday, January 16, 2012

Did you know when is the harvest season in Doka Estate?

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In January during the harvest season Doka Estate receives around 65 “fanegas” every day approximately 1300 baskets with ripe coffee cherries

During November, December and January starts the harvest season when the coffee cherries ripen in the Poas Volcano Region. Every day the coffee pickers have to select manually the red coffee cherries during the day and around 3 pm the trucks comes to measure what they have picked and they are paid for the hard work, the measured for the payment is a coffee basket named “Cajuela”, and 20 “cajuelas” is 1 “fanega”.
 
Doka Estate Coffee Mill has more than 100 years processing coffee cherries. The first stage starts when the coffee is received into the siphon and then goes to the chancadora where these machines peels off the red skin of the coffee cherries to take out 2 coffee seeds that have to rest in the fermentation tanks where the natural sugars of the seeds are eliminated; then the coffee is washed and dried in the “patios” for around 4 days to get the perfect 11.5% of humidity to be storage until it´s ready to be processed for export and roast.

Right now during the harvest season Doka Estate Coffee Mill is receiving around 65 “fanegas” every day approximately 1300 baskets with ripe coffee cherries or 16.20 tons of fruit