A lady with grey braided hair and a purple floral dress is holding a machete. She is leaning over some plants to a cactus. She cuts a small section of the cactus off. There is a banana plant in the front of the frame.

Meet the crew

A woman couches at the base of intertwined trees. She has her black hair pulled up, a bead necklace, black singlet and orange skirt.

Catalina Merino Varela

Catalina is the Director of TLF Mexico. She is an agricultural engineer, specialising in agricultural bio-inputs. She also leads the workshops we run in Pluma Hidalgo. She is also a complementary medicine therapist.

She is the co-creator of Casa Semilla. Lover of nature and life. Promoter of conscious and vegan food.

A woman with long dark hair smiles, and holds the lead of a husky dog

Fatima Merito Padilla

Fatima does the accounting and finance for TLF Mexico. She is a yoga instructor, runs a carpentry workshop and is a complementary medicine therapist specialising in herbal medicine and biomagnetism. She also has a B.A. in International Relations.

She is the co-creator of Casa Semilla.

A woman stands on a footpath. She wears a long patterned dress with long black hair pulled back into a ponytail.

Cecilia Santos Hernandez

Cecilia is the cook at Casa Semilla. She also oversees the quality assurance of the coffee each harvest, ensuring that the selected coffee is in perfect condition for shipment to New Zealand.

A young man sits in front of a bamboo wall. He wears a cap and teeshirt

Antonio Mijangos

Antonio, also known as Toñito, is the barista at Casa Semilla. He is an expert in roasting and preparing specialty coffee. At a young age, he decided to enter the world of coffee and learn the different methods of extracting and preparing coffee.