Coffee Plants

Lacehim

No responses so I just processed em. I will find out later if they are okay or not. 🙂

Koffee_Kosmo

Lacehim wrote:

No responses so I just processed em. I will find out later if they are okay or not. 🙂

Yep learn from any mistakes and pass them on I cant answer because I am unsure myself KK

Lacehim

I got a nice pressie yesterday. The Mary Valley folk's trees are full of red coffee berries (they have a couple of mature trees), and they dropped off all the berries they had. Loads of them, about 3/4 of a bucket and nice and red ready for processing 🙂 Got them popped open today, and they are fermenting in a bucket. Probably just under 1kg all up I think. The only issue I've had so far is removing the parchment. It can be quite hard to remove. I really need a quicker way to do this. Any ideas? I don't have the plastic blender as AM suggested so I need another idea which doesn't cost the earth. 🙂

Springbok

I had a good harvest of 300g of beans from my one tree in the garden - the biggest crop in 5 years.. I usually pulp them by hand a good Saturday mornings work , dump them in a bowl of water for a day, dry them on an oven tray, usually have to use the wifes hairdryer to get them completely dry or they get black spots in a week. The beans are definitely "soft" - after a weeks rest I roasted them very carefully to 60 seconds after 1st crack , rested for 2 days and we were pleasantly surprised by the quality - definitely drinkable although the grind was pretty coarse despite the setting. Im planning to dig up the strip on the side of the house and plant about 6 trees there - theyre great looking trees and I get a kick out of growing and roasting and drinking Springbok coffee..

Lacehim

Hi Springbok, If your going to have that many speed up the pulping by mashing the cherries in a bucket. Gets most of the beans out. 🙂 Maybe you didn't leave them in the water to ferment long enough? They need to feel a bit rough when you rub them rather than slimey. Did you remove the parchment after you dried them out? Inside there is a small blue/green bean which is your coffee bean. The parchment would burn off I'm sure during roasting but might leave a taint? I'm not expert though, I'm on a speed learning curve but enjoying the experience of processing my own coffee. I was thinking of covering the blade on the blender with a plastic cover... I was thinking maybe a plastic binder? Or would that be too extreme speed wise??? I don't want chopped beans. ;D

Koffee_Kosmo

One can roast coffee beans with parchment But you will have great amounts of chaff KK

madpierre

Nice to hear AM. Do we get some piccies, or have I got to bring a sample of roasted over to check 'em out ;D

Lacehim

A mixture of different plants is no big issue am. You just have an organic natures blend 🙂

Brett_H

AngerManagement wrote:

My trees are all flowering again.. And my potted ones are looking so healthy.. Problem is that there is a mix of some known (Byron Bay Red ? ) and a bunch of others that have self seeded from all the green that I loose and sweep off the deck ;D

Mate, can you germinate processed greens? See, I can swing a hammer and hang doors but the green stuff in the garden that you have to prune (but can't use the circular saw ???) befuddles me. I'm desperate o get ome trees happening but I just need to 'rig up' the framing gun to accidently rid us of scrub turkeys!!!

madpierre

Brett H wrote:

Mate, can you germinate processed greens? See, I can swing a hammer and hang doors but the green stuff in the garden that you have to prune (but can't use the circular saw ???) befuddles me. I'm desperate o get ome trees happening but I just need to 'rig up' the framing gun to accidently rid us of scrub turkeys!!!

Brett, it can be done. I have been in previous conversations though to work out whether or not the particular varietal is going to be suited to our climate and growing conditions.

Intense_Coffee

Just harvested my 1st crop of cherries from my poor lone Tree. Given as a gift about a year or so ago, the label says its a KM 35 Dwarf. Ended up with ... wait for it ..... 341g of green beans to process. 🙂 Wet processed and currently drying on the balcony. Hopefully it will give me enough to roast at least 1 batch. 😉

madpierre

Good stuff. There is something inherently satisfying with taking the bean from tree to cup yourself. From personal experience, attention to detail at every single stage is imperative to reducing the factors which can come through and have a negative impact on the final taste in the cup.

Lacehim

If AM or any others are game I'm up for building a huller for us domestic folks to share about. Can't be that hard! Also on holidays I went to a pecan farm and the owner was into his coffee too and processed his own. He gave me a good idea for removing the parchment... hopefully I can get into the garage soon to work on it. 🙂 Also all the display stuff he had, it suggested drying out the beans with parchment on for over 4 months+ Great place to go. The Eltham Valley Pantry had great coffee (one of the best I had around Ballina) and the pecan cheesecake was to die for. He does tours of the pecan farm too which was great, and very interesting.

madpierre

For mine the most inconvenient part of my processing was moving the sheet of masonite I was using for a drying rack around so as not to kill the grass underneath. Interesting thoughts the amount of time to leave the parchment on, but probably makes some sense in keeping a stable moisture content, especially during the more humid months up here. Very much liking the idea of a communal huller, and not the first time it has been mooted although never previously with too much seriousness. But I would think that over the next few years we may see growing quantities of cherrys being cropped. I'll take a note of that place at Ballina, we'll be down at Tallebudgera after Christmas and I'd love to do another trip down that way. I got to go down there a couple years back from same trip and caught up for a very nice coffee with one of the lads from CS out at Mark Bullivants roastery.

GaryatGala

I'll be sowing my seeds next month when it's warmer. Being in Perth where it's great for olives n grapes, not sure how it'll go here, but i will definitely give a progress report. This is where i thought hmmm, maybe i should grow it hydroponically and control the environment factors like temperature, sun and humidity. The sun is here blistering and dry in summer, so i guess some shade should be considered. And so another part of coffee journey starts...... Gary at G

DoubleRistretto

pics?

shape_shifter

I would love to be able to say I'm a true coffee snob, I go from grow to grind myself, I'm a true black thumb though. Anyone got a time machine so we can see what the trees have produced...sooooo long to wait 😛

madpierre

shape_shifter wrote:

I would love to be able to say I'm a true coffee snob, I go from grow to grind myself, I'm a true black thumb though. Anyone got a time machine so we can see what the trees have produced...sooooo long to wait 😛

I ran a thread over on the other forum a couple years ago, if you search 'home processing from tree to cup' it will be found. The home grown coffee AM spoke of in the previous post referred to a further batch of cherries processed from this very same tree but with improvements in the processing . As AM says as well and was confirmed to me by Anne Cooper a year or so back, it is whehter the varietals planted are suited to our climate and conditions. She showed me a book which I would love to find, had the different varietals and countries where grown. Very extensive and informative.

Koffee_Kosmo

My new plants are just under 1 mt high Still babies KK

madpierre

Nice to hear, KK. BTW, the Marawaka you roasted in the KKTO turned out beautifully. Back on topic...I've seen a couple threads here already regarding home processing, and would love to see it have it's own sub-box as they can easily get lost in different hidey holes. I'm hoping one night at work if I get the time or thought to trawl through the three or four threads which came about elsewhere and dig out all the essentials regarding our little sub hobby. There was some brilliant stuff there from not just us amateurs, but also very helpful info from one or two professionals. There was info posted which you don't necessarily find in regular sites which are googled. Again, if I have the time maybe even try my hand at this techo stuff and put a pdf. together of most of the basics if feasible. Can be tiring AT WORK But some nights I do have availability of enough of my senses to put to good use.

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