Blossom to bean....the process

Aloha Everyone!

The coffee farm is in full bloom and beautiful! I will do my best to describe the process of getting the coffee from bean to bloom! (I am new at this so bear with me please) When we got here January 11th, the coffee trees needed some major TLC. We have been working hard to give them some much needed pruning, picking, and fertilizing. It has been back breaking on some days, and really fun on others! My mother-in-law, Sandy Nolen was with me for an entire month and she worked hard to clean up many, many trees from vines that were choking them out and to feed them with the TLC they needed. We could not have accomplished all that we have without her. (plus her company was great!) Much thanks to you Sandy.

Giving coffee trees TLC is hard work!

My beautiful daughter-in-law Amanda, who is working harder than all of us as a full time mother to my two wonderful grandchildren!

So, once we freed the trees from their oppression of the jungle (which by the way is full time job in itself-this jungle wants to thrive and will do anything to do so) and some much needed rain (catchment is full again, yeah!) we started to see much happier trees, they stood up straight, got some new growth, and shouted "Mahalo, Nolens!"  We were able to pick some cherry and process a couple bags from growth that was already on the trees. But now?? OMG tons of blooms that hopefully will be tons of Coffee Cherry!!! Once the Cherry is dark red we will pick it and process it. In the pictures you will see some of the coffee we already picked and processed. There are some different shades of coffee cherry but it is all the same coffee and will be the same flavor.

               Tree overgrown with vines

                                                                        Coffee Cherry that needs picking

 Do you see what I see? Didn't even know he was there until I just posted this pic!

There are bees all over the blossoms busy doing their jobs! 

Cherry blossoms are from the Gardenia family, they smell wonderful. 

These green cherries are from the last bloom about a month ago. There were not as many blooms last time, but as you can see after the TLC-looks like we will have a lot more this time! This process continues throughout the season-blooms and cherry at different stages, so when we are picking there are some that get picked and some that do not.

After the cherry is picked (we hired pickers the first time to show us how it is done) it goes into our pulper and this machine separates the cherry from the bean. The beans fall into a tub and the cherry is composted to re-use as fertilizer. Once all the cherry has gone through the pulper it sits in a tub in water for about 24 hours and ferments. Then it gets rinsed and moved to the hot house (also needed TLC to get it working correctly)  were it dries. After it is dry (about a couple of days depending on the temperature and humidity outside) the beans (I think they look like peanuts) are in the parchment stage and they get put in burlap sacks and put in a shed where they sit with a de-humidifier for as long as we want them to. When we have enough parchment it gets taken to the Coffee Mill in Hilo and they process and roast the coffee for us. (we are not at this stage yet)

                 Fermenting after pulped                            Coffee cherry husks and beans separated (have                                                                                       to do some by hand that machine misses)

   Parchment on Drying racks

                                                                          112 degrees in the hot house! When I am homesick for                      AZ I go sit in it. LOL

Hot house worker Jimmy 3 the Coffee Farmer. After much deliberation from the 3 Jims (and one trip to the hospital for the original Jim)-they came up with a pretty good way to get it operational! (Jim the 4th had no input.) 

Before Pruning

Chain saw fun!

After pruning

Our trees are also in need of some major pruning. My husband has done many hours of research on how to best do this. Of course there are many different ways to prune coffee trees and everyone believes their way is the right way, so this has been a very arduous task for him. He finally settled on the best way to do this and my son has been working hard with the pruning. There are many rows way in the back that are too tall and need cutting. He has already gone through one chain saw blade and is having the time of his life!!! We are optimistic that this part of the farm will be giving us coffee next spring! We are also optimistic that all these blooms will yield coffee for all who want it and hopeful for rolling out product in the fall! My hubby is working hard on the label, bags, and marketing that is needed to get us up and running! Thanks Honey! 

That is all for now, see ya'll next time!

Aloha,
Crissy