It was a rainy day in 1998 and my late husband, Dr. Richard D. Burneskis, and I drove to one farm in Boquete, Panama.

When we saw this farm, there was no coffee, just weeds and trees, we immediate falling in love with, because of thousands of trees.

We knew if somebody buys this farm, they will cut trees to sell, because some of trees are very valuable for lumber.

My husband and I have been involved preserve environment for decades in USA.

We bought this farm in 20 minutes.

But there was problem that it was too high, 1,600m to 2,000m, grows little.

At that time coffee experts told us that coffee will only grow under 1,500m,  impossible if higher.

After we had failed for 2 years, we were introduced to a coffee laboratory run by UN, through mutual friends of the director

When we had a meeting , she asked us to give them 2 years to create new coffee seed for higher altitudes.

Today, Hacienda Don Julian has 60,000 pacamara, 15,000 geisha, 10,000 typica plants on site.

Our pacamara has won many awards including Best of Panama, so has our Typica…. .Our geisha are still young but very healthy.