A couple of weeks ago I went down to a farm in the Northern Rivers of NSW and hand picked a few buckets of extra ripe, purply plum coloured cherries, with a view to honey processing them. I sorted them, then painstakingly pulped them by hand, making a note to leave the mucilage on. This took me about four hours. I brought them back up to Brisbane with me, then lay them out to sun dry on a sheet of black plastic in the sun, turning them as frequently as I could. I left them out for about nine days, until the parchment (or the "husk") was real brittle. The Brisbane sun helped a whole heap. Anyway, I sat them aside for about two weeks, (Disappointingly I only had about a Kg at this point), and I'm currently sitting down hulling them (again, by hand- much to the detriment of the joints in my fingers).
I'm keen to know if anybody has any opinions about what I should try, anything they think I might have done incorrectly, or anything they think I should have a shot at in the future?
My plans are to take 250g (size of my hottop roaster) and de-husk them now, then sit them for about three weeks to try and even out the moisture content a little more, and get them looking more like the kind of green beans I'm used to seeing in imported coffees, before roasting them up against a lot that was freshly de-husked.
I'd love to post some pictures of the process for you (it only occurred to me to take any at around the drying stage), but I can't just yet, being a new member.
I'm keen to know if anybody has any opinions about what I should try, anything they think I might have done incorrectly, or anything they think I should have a shot at in the future?
My plans are to take 250g (size of my hottop roaster) and de-husk them now, then sit them for about three weeks to try and even out the moisture content a little more, and get them looking more like the kind of green beans I'm used to seeing in imported coffees, before roasting them up against a lot that was freshly de-husked.
I'd love to post some pictures of the process for you (it only occurred to me to take any at around the drying stage), but I can't just yet, being a new member.

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