San Diego is known as a major exporter of avocados, lemons and tomatoes, and now some farmers want to add coffee to that list.
Despite the popular belief that coffee beans should be grown in tropical climates such as Costa Rica or Colombia, San Diego has the right conditions for growing coffee.
The weather is balmy enough year-round to support the plants. Proper watering is imperative for the beans to thrive.
“As long as we’re not in a place that’s too icy and we’re watering the plants, they’ll grow,” said Chuck Badger, a Rancho Santa Fe coffee farmer and owner of RE Badger and Son Farm Management.
His half-acre property, once devoted to lemon trees, is now home to dozens of coffee bushes.
“Our collections are currently available for purchase through Blue Bottle,” Badger said.
Downtown San Diego coffee shops have expressed interest in selling locally grown coffee. Badger is currently in talks with Shadowy Horse Coffee.
“They came to visit our fields and they are very excited about it,” Badger said.
Badger said farmers have only started growing coffee beans in San Diego in the last 12 years. The idea started in Ventura.
Coffee beans grow in the red skin, called cascara, of the plant. More and more coffee shops are flavoring their coffee with sweet cascara skin to get more out of their crop.
“We primarily grow Arabica coffee,” Badger said. “Most of those plants are about two years aged.”
Badger’s grandfather started growing avocados in the 1920s. Over the generations, the family has moved on to citrus. Badger hopes coffee will be his most profitable crop yet.
