Life in a Banana Republic - Making Coffee

[YumaMarc]

Living outside the US certainly has its challenges, but it also has certain definite rewards. One of those is growing your own coffee in the back yard. Here are a few photos of our coffee from blossom to bean.
Fertilizing the coffee blossoms.

Green coffee berries.

Ripe coffee berries freshly picked, and ready to process.

The finished product, roasted and ready to grind. With all the work it takes to grow coffee, I don't know why it isn't $100 a pound!

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Agony and Death on a Gold Rush Steamer: The Disastrous Sinking of the Side-Wheeler Yankee Blade - Grab it through Amazon!

[tamrock]

Very interesting. Never thought a person would grow their own coffee before. Many years ago I would gather pinon nuts and roast them. One time I over roasted them and I thought wow it tastes kinda like coffee and I thought maybe I can make a brew out of over roasted pinon? Well I don't know if I had some original idea or not back then around 1980, but I thought I did. Wasn't but a couple years ago I'm shopping at Costco and I see this.

 

[Hawks88]

Nice story, nice pics. I bet it tastes great. Congrats.

 

[YumaMarc]

Thanks to all for the replies and likes. I've found there's a real trick to roasting coffee at home. The big companies have huge roasters that control temperature and time so the beans will all be the same. Most people at home use a pottery roaster, an idea borrowed from the Lenca Maya culture. This is a clay Lenca pottery roaster on a wood-fired "fogon". It works quite well as long as you don't walk away while it's doing its thing.

Too bad about the Piñon Coffee idea. You might have had a great idea if you had a good supply of nuts. But it's never too late. You should try a test market.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Thank you for sharing!

 

[WannaDig3687]

Now that would be one fresh cup of coffee! Thanks for showing us how it's done.