Growing coffee

[Divey]

The beans that you can see with the Silver Skin have not been polished at all which is quite obvious, however, it seems to me that the majority of the beans have a fair bit of the Silver Skin on them even after giving them a bit of a rough up and rub between the palms of your hands. Some beans, the Silver Skin seems loose and is easy to rub off, others, it's rather tight to the bean and difficult to rub off. Anyway, I'll give 'em a good rub and see how we go.

Even though I finished with only 335 grams (rather ironic that I roast 333 grams in the Behmor at a time) it was not and easy bean to roast as I would not have heard more than a 8-10 beans go into first crack. Bugger. I had to go by colour only and used a bright LED Torch to check that. I finished up with a roast colour of about CS10. After about a week of degassing and then tasting, I may say that I and many others are very impressed with the homegrown Dwarf Arabica.
My little trees are planted in very large pots and I tend to them like babies. Seeing what blossoms I have had this year I will certainly need some manual equipment for this years crop.

I think I may go for one of these little jobs......

CAPE Coffee Huller


Has anyone here bought one of these

[GrahamK]

I priced them a year or so ago, and they are not cheap for just a just few home-grown beans. If you have the funds, I imagine it would be good. This year I bought a very cheap food processor (they were on sale at K-Mart at the time), and hulled about 3kg successfully. Much easier and more successful than my attempts in previous years. A plastic blade is probably best, but I just covered the edges with something quite tough. In fact did quite a good polishing job as well.
Graham

[Divey]

About $235.00 plus GST, that's not too bad considering the amount of beans I will have later this year.

[herbie]

Our 2 dwarf coffee trees are loaded again with cherries. There are 50+ ripe cherries. It is not worth processing such a small batch.
I am wondering if I can freeze these red cherries until I have sufficient to process.
I have searched the internet and could not find any information on this subject.
Any ideas????

[Divey]

Our 2 dwarf coffee trees are loaded again with cherries. There are 50+ ripe cherries. It is not worth processing such a small batch.
I am wondering if I can freeze these red cherries until I have sufficient to process.
I have searched the internet and could not find any information on this subject.
Any ideas????

When our trees first started to produce cherries, I processed them to the roasting stage and then held on to them for the following year.

[GrahamK]

If you are pulping them by hand you may want to pick and process them as they become ripe. Pulping bucketfulls of cherries by hand all at once can become quite a chore.

I pulp and process as they become ripe myself, and in fact pulped my first batch of my 2015 vintage this week.

I'm currently also drinking last years vintage, which are a lot better than expected.

GrahamK

[Divey]

If you are pulping them by hand you may want to pick and process them as they become ripe. Pulping bucketfulls of cherries by hand all at once can become quite a chore.

I pulp and process as they become ripe myself, and in fact pulped my first batch of my 2015 vintage this week.

GrahamK

That's exactly what I have been doing in the past. About every three days I collect the ripe cherries, pulp them by hand, see if there are any floaters and discard them and the non floaters I put out on a wooden table on a clean tablecloth in the sun. Turning them several times a day. When they are dry enough (not sticky to handle) I then put them in a cane basket in the sun on the same table and turn them over a couple of times each day. I simply add the next batch to the basket when they are ready.

I'm currently also drinking last years vintage, which are a lot better than expected.

GrahamK

We were presently surprised how good our homegrown coffee is. And, I agree with Graham, a lot better than I expected.

When I purchased my hulling machine from CAPE Australia, I spoke to Mr. John Zentveld from CAPE who told me to leave the beans with the hull on them for about three months before hulling and roasting. He said that coffee beans with their hull on is similar the ageing wine and the beans are much better if left to age in that state.

[GrahamK]

I also leave the hulls on until I decide to actually start roasting them.
GrahamK

[rroodd]

Just wondering if anyone had updates on availability of small-batch/hand pulpers ? Just started looking into it myself, and other than CAPE Aust, there is not really any other companies that are selling similar equipment.
Looking more and more like a 'self-designed' bit of kit is in order....

[GrahamK]

Lots for sale via Ali Baba, imports mainly from China etc. Some will supply single units. But other than Cape never found any locally. Decided for myself I still cannot cost justify the outlay for such small batches. Started making a home made one once using gutter guard wrapped around plastic piping but hit too many snags so still do it by hand.

Could not find any DIY plans on interweb either unfortunately. Maybe a co-op approach is required.

GrahamK

[Divey]

Lots for sale via Ali Baba, imports mainly from China etc. Some will supply single units. But other than Cape never found any locally. Decided for myself I still cannot cost justify the outlay for such small batches. Started making a home made one once using gutter guard wrapped around plastic piping but hit too many snags so still do it by hand.

Could not find any DIY plans on interweb either unfortunately. Maybe a co-op approach is required.

GrahamK

The Huller I bought from CAPE has the name Botini on the main body casting if you wish to chase that up.

[Goofie11]

Triberry

I know about peaberrys and the standard two seed per cherry but has anyone come across Triberrys, my back yard trees produce about the same amount of these as it does peaberrys

[Divey]

I know about peaberrys and the standard two seed per cherry but has anyone come across Triberrys, my back yard trees produce about the same amount of these as it does peaberrys

Yep, about the same amount as the peaberrys.

[GrahamK]

You also seem to get less of them as the trees mature.

[Goofie11]

That is interesting, this is the first year they have produced fruit