Coffee Plants

Lacehim

Righto boys and girls,

I popped over to the neighbours for a kiddies birthday party, got their Breville 800 coffeemachine steaming without the foaming tip :o Lovely burned milk stuck up there.

Anyway, another party person mentioned a friend that has several coffee trees and doesn't know what to do with the fruit. She just bins it!!!!! ??? ??? :o :o

So short answer if I volunteered to take it off her hands! 🙂 Not sure when I'll get some but from 5 or so trees there should be enough to get a roast from. She's also got a few saplings growning around the trees (probabaly from the fruit just falling off and composting) so I might grab them and plant them at home. If I end up with too many I'm happy to pass them on.

So, what do you think you'll get from 5 or so trees and when should they be picked any tips?

tauyeung

I have no experience with growing coffee, but am a bit of a 'black thumb' when it comes to other plants. The only success I've had with growing stuff is with herbs.... My guess is you pick when the berries look red (ripe) ? I'm not so sure how many cups you can get out of 5 trees (but having said that I don't know how big your trees are). I'm kinda curious as to whether I can grow a coffee tree, but I'm in Sydney and maybe it's a bit cold for it. Keep us posted on your trees please 🙂

Koffee_Kosmo

My guess is that Five or so trees should produce about a years worth of beans KK

Lacehim

Koffee Kosmo wrote:

My guess is that Five or so trees should produce about a years worth of beans KK

A years worth for who???

takeaim

For anyone in Melbourne Growers Espresso/Eureka Coffee are currently selling coffee plants from their own plantation - $20 each I believe.

Lacehim

Wow that much. Sorry kk wasn't having a go. Everyone's consumption differs so I wasn't sure if you where talking like 250gm a bag or so a week or more. I've just got a dwarf coffee tree. It's got some berries already in it's second year. The tree is not very big though. Are you trying to start up a coffee plantation am? ;D So if this friend of a friend picks them, then what? They need the beans removed (is that pulped?), then dried. Then roasted or is there more to it? What type of processes have our fellow forum members used for drying at home? I probably should finish watching that show about the coffee plantation and the poms.

Koffee_Kosmo

I lost a few coffee trees in the floods Not that I was flooded but the wet conditions I have 2 left in pots that are now shooting new leaves again & healthy One of them was from the pot that I was offered at the last meet-up So I need to get a few more KK

Lacehim

Wow I do have a lot to learn. I'll be popping over to see my neighbour soon with all this info. I think all my neighbours thought I was a bit mad with my coffee, but now they are getting quite interested. Passing on a few bags of freshly roasted coffee help. 🙂

Koffee_Kosmo

Lacehim wrote:

Wow that much. Sorry kk wasn't having a go. Everyone's consumption differs so I wasn't sure if you where talking like 250gm a bag or so a week or more.

Sorry for the late reply I did a bit of research and a mature Arabica coffee plant will produce 1 to 5 kg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffea_arabica KK

Lacehim

Why can't we make a basic hand huller? KK is always good at coming up with a concept design idea (I love how his mind works). He really should be an engineer or something What does it have to do exactly?

Koffee_Kosmo

Lacehim wrote:

Why can't we make a basic hand huller? KK is always good at coming up with a concept design idea (I love how his mind works). He really should be an engineer or something What does it have to do exactly?

I do have a Mechanical Engineering certificate :o If doing it by hand I think something like a cherry or olive pipper should work KK

Lacehim

I was thinking something more mechanical. Like cranking a handle. I'm lazy I know. Maybe it could even be shared between forum users?

Koffee_Kosmo

Lacehim wrote:

I was thinking something more mechanical. Like cranking a handle. I'm lazy I know. Maybe it could even be shared between forum users?

Coffee Hulling is the next process after the beans are dried Its also called parchment I think that a ball tumbler like the ones used for bingo would de-hull pretty well One may need to add a few thrashers inside to assist in the process and less open hold the beans in KK

Lacehim

This info was very useful http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/26_19720.htm Like the bucket idea, mash em up and get rid of AM's floats. ;D The only part I think I will struggle with is the moisture... 11%, not 12% or more. That's a bit accurate! How can you measure moisture in a bean at home? All the other parts are well, labour intensive, but would be interesting all the same. Your bingo machine would be a great idea KK. Can you make me one like that for roasting on my Wood fired Oven ;D 😛 ;D Only being cheeky. OT but, I have been looking everywhere for one (to the point that my wife is looking too 😃 ) but the holes are either far too big or not made of the right material (it's going to have to be stainless for roasting I think).

Koffee_Kosmo

Lacehim wrote:

Can you make me one like that for roasting on my Wood fired Oven ;D 😛 ;D Only being cheeky. OT but, I have been looking everywhere for one (to the point that my wife is looking too 😃 ) but the holes are either far too big or not made of the right material (it's going to have to be stainless for roasting I think).

Its not stainless but I can get you some perforated mild steel sheet You will have to bend/make it yourself Its free from a friend KK

Lacehim

Koffee Kosmo wrote:

Its not stainless but I can get you some perforated mild steel sheet You will have to bend/make it yourself Its free from a friend KK

Sounds good KK, yes please. How thick is it? The only other thing I thought about was some really small wire mesh from a hardware store.

Koffee_Kosmo

Lacehim wrote:

Koffee Kosmo wrote:

Its not stainless but I can get you some perforated mild steel sheet You will have to bend/make it yourself Its free from a friend KK

Sounds good KK, yes please. How thick is it? The only other thing I thought about was some really small wire mesh from a hardware store.

The steel sheet I have some in the garage now Its about 1mm thick with approx 3mm holes size is approx 400mm X 400 mm sq Its yours if you want it on your next trip to Brisbane KK

Lacehim

Well a few days ago my coffee cherries got picked, nice and red and ready. A total of 30ish beans! Currently fermenting for a few days. I found the DPI's idea squashing them in a bucket worked great, mind you I didn't need a bucket for my small 30 or so. ;D Still it's a start, and the tree is only a year old and still very small. Oh and KK, I haven't forgotten about your steel sheet. Would still love that.

Koffee_Kosmo

Lacehim wrote:

Well a few days ago my coffee cherries got picked, nice and red and ready. A total of 30ish beans! Currently fermenting for a few days. I found the DPI's idea squashing them in a bucket worked great, mind you I didn't need a bucket for my small 30 or so. ;D Still it's a start, and the tree is only a year old and still very small. Oh and KK, I haven't forgotten about your steel sheet. Would still love that.

That perforated sheet is waiting in my garage KK

Lacehim

My neighbours parents have moved up to the Mary Valley, and they now have some nice mature coffee trees in their yard. 🙂 Short story he appears at my door this morning with a margarine tub of ripe/semi ripe beans. Says in a few weeks he will have bucket loads of ripe beans. Nice. 🙂 Apart from a few green beans that I removed these look okay but I would probably have picked them once fully red. Would they still be okay to process/consume? I'm more concerned with the yellow topped ones. The others I picked from my bush, all 32 of them are coming along well. I fermented the beans for a few days in water until they felt rough to the touch rather than slimey, then dried them on a paper towel and now they are dried I will manually remove them from the parchment. The parchment is the biggest issue in processing larger volumes I think. I don't have a plastic blade on my food processor like AM suggested 🙁 and it will take forever to do it manually. I'm really enjoying this part of the "coffee experience", just seeing them grow and how to process them is very interesting. Yes my neighbours think I'm mad but I would rather be doing this than watching the footy. ;D