Rambutan, rose apple, pepper on the shade trees and coconut palms — what is actually growing on the estate.
One of the quieter pleasures of staying on a working farm in Wayanad is that breakfast tends to involve something that was on a tree a short walk away that morning.
Robusta coffee, first
The estate grows Robusta. In Wayanad's climate it does well, and it is the crop the property is organised around — the plants, the shade trees above them, the drying yard about five minutes away on foot.
Black pepper, climbing the shade
Pepper here is not grown in its own separate plot. The vines climb the shade trees that sit over the coffee, which is the traditional arrangement and one of the things worth having pointed out to you on the walk — it is easy to miss that the vine wrapping a trunk overhead is the crop.
Rambutan and rose apple
Both grow on the estate. Rambutan is the spiky one — green-gold when it is coming ripe, hanging in heavy clusters. Rose apples are the pale pink-and-cream bell-shaped fruit; they show up in clusters against the leaves and are best eaten straight off the tree.
There are coconut palms on the grounds too.
Why it matters to a guest
It is the difference between being told a place is surrounded by nature and being handed something at breakfast that you watched growing the day before. If you want to know what anything is, ask Mathew on the walk — that is genuinely the best way to learn it.
Coffee Terrace is two rooms on a working Robusta estate near Kalpetta, Wayanad — the coffee, pepper and fruit outside your window are grown by the family that hosts you.
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