In 1762, the first road crossed the region of Campestre, where at the time there were three farms: Peão, Vanglória, and Cachoeira. The road greatly facilitated transportation and boosted the region's production.
After many years, the growth of coffee farming reached Dulce's family at Fazenda Mato Dentro, her great-great-grandfather’s farm, in 1859. There began a family tradition that continues to this day, providing award-winning coffees in the region.
In 1878, João Manoel Franco, Dulce's great-grandfather, planted his first coffee trees at Fazenda Pinhal do Campestre. This year also marks the birth of Dulce’s grandmother. These two events inspired the name of the producer’s specialty coffee brand: 1878.
Decades later, another branch of this coffee-growing family tree was born in Campestre: João Manoel Franco’s Fazenda Pinhal, in 1891. This year also marked a period of great prosperity with access to running water, telephones, and machinery.
After 31 years, Dulce’s grandfather expanded the family’s coffee production with a plantation of 160,000 coffee trees. Transportation at that time was challenging, with three ox-cart routes transporting the coffee to Poços de Caldas. Later, all the hard work was rewarded with the purchase of a Dodge truck, which enabled them to complete the journey in a single day.
In 1990, the farm Sítio Belém was founded by Ablandino and Dulce. The name is derived from the Hebrew “Bethlehem,” meaning “House of Bread,” and holds strong biblical significance.
The main varieties at the farm include Mundo Novo, Arara, CD2 Arara, Rubi, Geisha, Paraíso, Paraíso 2, and the award-winning Catiguá, grown at an altitude ranging from 1,100 to 1,200 meters, producing around 600 manually harvested sacks per year.
