One year old organic coffee trees are available
to local farmers from Blair Estate. Started from “arabica
typica” variety of seed stock imported from the famous Kona
coffee region on the Big Island of Hawaii our coffee seeds were
carefully selected for their cupping qualities and come from award
winning farms. After analyzing the root system of every start
and pruning for direct lateral growth the tree starts have been
raised off the ground and under direct sun light. A mixture of
organic top soil as well as a special blend of organic fertilizers
have been used to feed these trees thus far. These trees are now
8-12 months old and are ready for ground planting.
Where and how should I plant?
If you are planting more than one coffee tree you should space
them in the following fashion. Plant your rows running north to
south leaving 6 feet in between trees and 12 feet in between rows.
This is important if you intend to maximize your crop as it will
allow the maximum amount of sunlight to hit your trees. It will
also allow for easier maintenance for mowing and weed control.
You should carefully lay out your rows with string and mark before
hand where your holes will be dug. It is important to note that
planting in this style and in open fields will require frequent
watering. Shade grown coffee will obviously require less watering
and is easier to maintain... but it will produce less coffee per
tree. If you are planting in the row method and with a large number
of trees (more than 200) you should consider irrigation. Cost
per acre to set up a drip irrigation system is about $2000. There
are approximately 623 trees that can be planted per acre using
the 6x12 spacing method. In most cases where only a few trees
are planted... watering and fertilization are an easy task.
Are you ready to plant?
When you are ready for planting it is important to dig a 5 gallon
hole for the one gallon bag that holds your tree. Once your hole
has been dug sprinkle about 6 inches of loose dirt back in, spread
a cup full of the blended coffee planting fertilizer (BEOF1) on
the loose dirt and cover again with another 6 inches of soil.
You should now have enough space in the hole from bottom to top
to comfortably fit the one gallon coffee start. The loose dirt
and layering in the fertilizer is important as it will allow the
root system of the tree both growing room and air to breath.
After you have prepared your holes remove the
tree from its bag being careful not to disturb or rip the roots.
Once the tree has been removed from the bag you must study the
root system at the bottom of the tree. Very important...
If you notice a large tap root on the bottom of your tree that
has taken an obvious turn because it could not grow any further
down because of the bag... cut it off. Don’t worry... this
will only help your tree not hurt it. You want the main tap root
to grow straight down and not sideways so this will help establish
healthy root growth for years to come. (A good general rule of
thumb is to always remove a half an inch at the bottom of your
root ball.) You are now ready to plant. Place the tree in the
hole, cover with soil and water so the ground and your planting
are sufficiently soaked. You are now ready to top your tree. Once
again you will ask yourself, will this hurt my new tree? The answer
is no. Your trees should be on average forty seven inches high
at the time of planting and healthy enough to sustain this topping
technique. In the end your trees will produce at least twice as
much coffee utilizing this method. At a height of twenty six inches
above the base of the tree make your cut above at least two sets
of branches and leave one inch of stalk above the top set of branches
when you make this cut. Be sure to leave as much stalk as possible
above the last healthy branches you are leaving as this will deter
pests and fungus from attacking your new laterals. What this will
do is allow your tree to actually grow four trees in one. The
four laterals you leave will all eventually turn upwards to support
normal tree growth. Once again... this is important if you want
to maximize the amount of coffee one tree can produce as well
as making it easier to pick.
Now that I’ve planted how do I maintain
healthy growth in my tree?
Once your trees have been planted it is important to establish
a routine for feeding and watering them. While Kauai is generally
a wet enough place to make watering easy... you can never forecast
what mother nature will bring or not bring in the way of good
growing weather. Thus... you may need to water by hand during
dry spells. What is important is the schedule for the organic
fertilization program. Keeping to this schedule will induce both
healthy vegetative and flowering growth of your trees. Both are
crucial elements if you intend to produce a hearty crop. Fertilization
should also be done only when the weather is rainy, cloud cover
good, and the soil is moist. The following is a schedule for fertilizing
your trees per acre. Obviously with fewer trees one can see that
less than a pound of fertilizer is used per tree in the growth
months and approximately a quart is used in the flower inducing
months. Fertilizer can be spread either by hand or made into an
organic tea. Organic won’t burn so I spread a handful of
dried fertilizer to each tree every two weeks. If you can detect
it’s best to throw fertilizer before an oncoming rainy period.
Use of organic fertilizer should include elements of NPK but an
extra portion of some elements at certain times will increase
growth, flowering and fruiting throughout the year. I use a combination
of 12.0.0, 8.5.1, and any high Potash source I can get my hands
on. Here is a general schedule of fertilizer I use for my coffee
trees throughout the year.
November thru January are generally good months
to plant your coffee trees in the ground. A high phosphate fertilizer
1-10-1 is used to start rapid root growth before switching over
to the above fertilizing schedule.
I’ve made it to Fall... how do I pick all
this coffee?
Now comes the test of the true farmer. It has been my experience
that the healthier the coffee... the healthier your attitude will
be for harvesting it. For most farmers it is this time of quietness
and serenity that defines the coffee farmer’s life-style.
Picking coffee by hand takes time and patience and there is still
no better way of harvesting. Mechanized harvesting methods can
not come close to matching the human eye and hand of what gets
picked. A secret method about detecting early the quality of your
coffee crop can be administered by tasting the raw coffee cherry.
The sweeter the taste.... the better the coffee. Several rounds
of picking occur in an annual harvest that spans usually three
months. The rounds of picking correspond to the several flowerings
you induced during your fertilization program. Ideally coffee
cherry should be harvested at peak ripeness (fully red). Never
pick coffee cherry which is not at least half or more red as these
immature beans will negatively impact your cup of coffee.
I Need Help!
Pickers are generally paid around 50 cents per cherry pound to
pick if you require help. A sign at the end of the driveway is
a good method for free advertising. “Coffee Pickers Wanted....
50¢ per pound”
How do I process my coffee?
Processing your coffee involves several steps. Pulping, fermenting,
washing, sun drying, dry hulling, grading (optional), and roasting.
It is crucial to pulp your raw coffee cherry in
the same day you pick. Harvested coffee will spoil if left unattended
for longer than 12 hours and faster if exposed to heat or sun.
Pulping:
Remove the raw coffee husk from the beans and discard husk into
a fertilizer pile. Pulping is done with a coffee pulper powered
by hand or motor. Blair Estate will pulp your raw coffee for a
nominal fee if you choose not to purchase a coffee pulper. Pulpers
cost between 300 and 1200 dollars and can process between one
thousand and two thousand pounds per hour. This wet milling process,
as the coffee industry calls it, can also be done by hand if you’re
processing only a few pounds of cherry. In general though... a
healthy tree in its third year of growth will produce 20 to 60
pounds of raw coffee cherry (3-9 pounds of roasted coffee).
Fermenting:
Fermentation breaks down the mucilage that surrounds the coffee
bean. This mucilage if not removed will retard the taste of your
coffee and create an undesirable taste. Fermentation should be
done in a wooden vat with water filled only to the top of your
beans. Some farmers use no water but this will make it difficult
to separate the floaters. Floaters are beans that float on water
after pulped. You should remove them from your coffee as they
lack the necessary density to produce a good cup of coffee. Heavier
beans will sink to the bottom of the water vat. Some farmers remove
floaters before pulping but you run the chance of having one good
bean being discarded since there are two beans per coffee cherry
with the exception of Peaberry (a single, round, very dense bean
which occurs in only about 2 - 4 percent of the harvest). Plastic
buckets can also be used but wood tends to hold the warmth better
which is an important element in the process. This demucilaging
process, as the coffee industry calls it, is best done if the
temperature is around 80-90 degrees in the vat. This temperature
will occur naturally when the bacteria and fungi start to decompose
the mucilage. In general this fermentation takes about 12 - 16
hours and is generally done over night after pulping later in
the day or early evening. A simple test to see if this fermentation
process is done can be administered. Take a small handful of coffee
and wash them in clean water. If the mucilage rubs off and your
beans lose there slippery feel you are ready to proceed to washing.
Washing:
Empty your vat of fermented coffee onto a 1/8 inch screen framed
by wood and thoroughly wash the fermented mucilage off. In a coffee
mill setting a shaker table with water sprayers above would be
the automated way of handling this task. Once the beans have been
washed proceed to sun drying your coffee which is now called parchment.
Parchment is the name used to describe the coffee bean at this
stage.
Sun drying your parchment coffee:
Once again mother nature provides the best way to process your
coffee. Sun drying your beans slowly allows a gentle curing process
to occur. Machine dryers can be used but it simply is not as good
as using the natural sun dry method. Wood decks are generally
used and a pound of coffee per square foot is an accepted amount
of coffee to lay out in that space. Important.... never let your
beans get wet! If it looks like it is going to rain you should
move them under cover or have a clear roof over head to prevent
the rain from hitting them. Also Important.... beans should be
raked or turned several times a day to assure even drying. In
Kona early Japanese farmers concocted a scheme that used rolling
roof systems called hoshidanas. These hoshidanas, or rolling roofs,
could slide on and off the drying platform in times of rain and
sun. The sun drying process can take different amounts of time
depending on the weather. In hot and sunny periods where the beans
are exposed directly to sunlight at least 10 hours a day the drying
process can take only 4-5 days. In cloudy and rainy periods the
process may take up to two weeks. A good test to determine whether
or not your beans are fully dried is to remove the crisp brown
parchment skin and bite into your bean. If the green bean appears
hard and brittle between your teeth it is dry (you should be able
to snap the bean in two on a clean bite). If the green bean appears
soft to the bite and won’t break it needs more time to dry.
What do I do with my parchment coffee?
Coffee is best kept when stored in parchment form. The thin, dry,
crisp, brown membrane surrounding the green coffee bean will actually
protect your coffee from molding over time during storage. Dry
storage of large quantities should occur in a dehumidified environment
(a dehumidifier left on a mid way setting in a sealed, dark, wood
room is perfect). Dry hulling your coffee involves removing this
parchment layer. Once again a machine is used for this process.
Dry hullers made locally can process 2 pounds per minute and cost
around 2 thousand dollars. For the small farmer with less than
one hundred pounds of dried coffee parchment we suggest a simple
home method using an ordinary kitchen blender. Sharp blades can
be used but if you want to prevent damage to your green beans
you should dull and round the metal blades of your blender with
a rasp. Pulse the parchment in the blender until the dried parchment
is whisped off your beans. Remove the contents and blow away the
parchment shavings. A small fan and tossing the beans in the air
off a plate helps. It is important to remove all the parchment
before you proceed to roasting.
What about Grading?
Grading green coffee is a process that classifies your green beans
according to density and size. It also separates damaged or unwanted
beans from your harvest. If you are careful picking only ripe
coffee and you do a good job separating floaters before or after
you pulp you will not have to really grade your coffee to produce
a quality cup. In this grading process a series of screens size
your best beans from large to small and a gravity table will separate
your beans according to density. The machines needed to properly
grade green coffee for the open market are also very expensive
so only serious coffee producers should consider their use.
Finally.... am I ready to roast and drink
my coffee?
Congratulations... you are now ready to roast and brew your first
cup of home grown organic coffee. I suggest going on-line and
purchasing a small kitchen coffee roaster. That’s right...
visit E-Bay Auctions and bid on a “new” small home coffee
roaster. They can generally be had for about $50 and can roast
about 2-4 ounces at a time. When you operate them listen to the
crackling sound of the beans to determine your desired roast.
When you hear the second series of crackling you are at a medium
roast coffee and the beans will look brown in color. Generally
this roast takes about 4 minutes to reach. Obviously the longer
you roast the darker your beans will become so experiment and
find what you like in taste. I have found that this electric hot
air roaster is the cleanest and most efficient way of roasting
your coffee. Obviously... larger commercial roasters, both electric
and gas, are available for the more serious coffee producer. When
you are finished roasting it is best to let the beans sit for
12 hours which allow them to degas. Personally I find the best
time to roast is in the evening in preparation for making my morning
cup of coffee.
For organic fertilizer, coffee processing equipment
or other advice feel free to contact me at Blair Estate Coffee:
(808) 822-4495
