Small time coffee processing at home?

[unknownjulie]

I noticed I have some "wild" coffee plants growing and fruiting near my house. Can I just pick the berries and do something with them in my own home kitchen? thanks

[VancouverIslander]

Yes you can. Pick only ripe cherries, and then soak them overnight in water. You then need to separate the seeds (beans) from the fruit. This can be done in a collander or other similar device. You'll need to do several rinses quite likely. After you have clean beans, you need to dry them out. If you have a covered Lanai, this is a good place, especially if some sunlight gets through there. THey need to be turned every so often (with commercial quantities, they are turned with a rake on a drying patio). Once they are down to around 10-15% moisture, they are ready for long term storage and at this stage are called parchment coffee due to the hard outer layer. I don't know how to remove this layer at home, but commercial growers run them through a sort of dehulling machine to remove it. Roasting can be accomplished in a surprising number of ways. You can simply roast in a frying pan as long as you don't heat to high and keep those beans moving. You can roast in a popcorn popper if it has side vents rather than a bottom vent (the side vents keep them moving better and avoids scorching some beans and under roasting others). There are home roasting machines such as the i-Roast2, Behmor, Hot Top and more. You can even roast in a bbq with the right attachments. Also note that the cherry itself is edible - just save the seeds.

http://www.coffeeresearch.org/agricultur...essing.htm

Now if only someone would tell me the basics of growing coffee! My plants have been going for about a year and a half and have had a really tough time. They get spots on the leaves and then drop them and some just plain die. Regular fertilizer seems to help. Any hints on soil types, drainage etc?

[rainyjim]

I would recommend sending a soil sample into the lab to get it analyzed if you are serious about your concern.

Also can you describe the spots on your leaves?

There are many plant deficiencies which come from lack of nutrients and are common occurences in agricultural endeavors here on the Big Island.

Also, besides deficiencies there are a number of pathogens, notably - fungi like colletotrichum gloeospoioides or Psuedocercospora sp.

If you could describe the spots in more detail that would be helpful to a diagnosis, however, keep in mind pre-mature defoiliation of plants is one the primary symptoms of fungal infections.

I really hope you get the issue cleared up.

[james weatherford]

We have for 10 years been picking and hand processing 5 to 20 lbs / of dried "parchment" beans / year.

Pick the red cherries.
Soak a few hours.
Remove the red skin and what pulp comes with it -- this is called "wet milling"; we do it by hand while the coffee processor uses a "pulper" machine.
There will still be most of the pulp on the bean -- let the pulpy beans ferment in a shallow container for 1 or 2 days, until the pulp dissipates and the bean gets a sand-papery feeling.
Wash the remaining pulp off and dry the beans -- this yields what is known as "parchment" due to the thin parchment-like layer over the green coffee bean.
We accumulate parchment for a couple years (it keeps well if maintained dry), then take it to Hilo Coffee Mill @ Mt View for "dry milling" and roasting. They do it in batches of up to 35lb/batch.

[Greenlady]

For small amounts, the parchment can also be rubbed and picked off once the beans are really dry. Keeps the hands occupied while reading the latest posts on punaweb.

[unknownjulie]

The wild coffee near my house is growing next to a wild meyers lemon. Maybe the coffee plant likes the acidity of the rotting lemons on the ground?? I am sure originally, this was someone's garden, but mother nature has taken it back. Thanks for the pointers about the coffee beans. I'll try it tomorrow!

[microage97]

You will probably want to use some 16-16-16 fertilizer on them.

[kalakoa]

I was told triple-16 until they fruit, then switch to "coffee cherry".

[topograph]

My husband and I gather coffee from an abandoned plantation above Waianae. After we peel, soak and dry them, we take the parchment off in a food processor with a plastic blade, then roast them in a wok on our boat (too smoky to do it in the apartment!). The key is to let the finished beans sit for 24 to 48 hours to smooth out the flavors, otherwise the resultant coffee tastes like wood chips! The below link goes to a video of our roasting process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ITwqG0LswM

[microage97]

Correct Kalakoa!