04-23-2008, 06:28 AM
Instead of reinventing the wheel why not take your coffee to the coffee mill and have it processed? They do pretty small batches, call and ask them what the smallest batch they process and what stage of the coffee they want to see.
It isn't hard to make a coffee pulper. I had an antique one in my garden shed for awhile but we gave it back to the fellow who had left it there. Find a cylinder, put some sort of studs on it - this pulper was a round section of log with fat round nail heads sticking up. Rotate it against a sloping board as part of a hopper/chute and have the space between the cylinder and the board adjustable. Rotate the cylinder while pouring water through it and the pulped beans will fall out.
Put the pulped beans in a big washtub or bucket and let them sit in water overnight. Wash the remaining pulp off and spread the beans out to dry. At that stage you should be able to save up enough to make a batch to take to the coffee mill. There's Hilo Coffee Mill above Keaau and there's Long Ears in Honoka'a. So far, the best coffee I've had has been grown in O'okala mauka and processed at Long Ears. Unfortunately he doesn't grow enough to sell so it is his own private supply. Sigh!
It isn't hard to make a coffee pulper. I had an antique one in my garden shed for awhile but we gave it back to the fellow who had left it there. Find a cylinder, put some sort of studs on it - this pulper was a round section of log with fat round nail heads sticking up. Rotate it against a sloping board as part of a hopper/chute and have the space between the cylinder and the board adjustable. Rotate the cylinder while pouring water through it and the pulped beans will fall out.
Put the pulped beans in a big washtub or bucket and let them sit in water overnight. Wash the remaining pulp off and spread the beans out to dry. At that stage you should be able to save up enough to make a batch to take to the coffee mill. There's Hilo Coffee Mill above Keaau and there's Long Ears in Honoka'a. So far, the best coffee I've had has been grown in O'okala mauka and processed at Long Ears. Unfortunately he doesn't grow enough to sell so it is his own private supply. Sigh!
Kurt Wilson