Soil and Compost
Mature organic material such as dead leaves etc., that collect naturally on the ground in the coffee field makes up part of a natural compost. Immature material placed on the ground over the mature material, such as all the cuttings that are twigs from thinning the coffee plants and the canopy of shade trees that are thinned to let in a bit more light each third year that the coffee plant is cut back are placed as immature on top of the mature material over the soil. This creates a natural compost for the soil full of mature and immature material naturally decomposing each year. Of course, we do use manure for fertilizer, but our ultimate goal is to get the soil as well balanced as possible so that we are less dependent on the fertilizer each year. This will take quite sometime, perhaps a decade or so of growing our soil for our coffee plants.
Kona & Bio-intensive Methods
I am very interested in planting the coffee plants in the bio-intensive methods that I have learned in the last few years. My goal is to plant 50% more coffee plants in the same acreage that exists now.
The continued plan for the next few years is that the field will be thinned and cut back until the entire field has had a rest within the last three years total (a third cut back each year in a major section of the fields- a non producing harvest season for each third of the field). Then I’d like to try planting plants so that they are growing in the middle of each row that exists now. We will then wait one more year for a total of three more years or harvest seasons, before we can try the Kona method of growing coffee.
The Kona method of growing the coffee plants for example, is significant to doing the same as is done now in the fields but in rows rather than sections of the field. One full mature row, one semi mature row and one resting row that will not produce cherries. The shade will be a different pattern with the thinning of the jungle canopy from trees above and the coffee plants being cut back and closer together to provide shade to each other by growing in different stages and heights each year and closer together (hopefully!).
The coffee plants below, have been cut all the way back to the stump and are just starting to grow back in this photo. These cut back plants will not produce coffee cherries in a harvest year. Note that the compost methods we use for mature and immature materials are easily seen covering all of the soil tops in the coffee fields as in this photo below.
Plants growing up to six weeks shown in the photo below, are cut back one more time to the stumps as shown in the photo above:
Same coffee plants that were cut back at the beginning of the season in the photos above are shown below approximately 6 months later. Our coffee grows amongst hardwood shade trees and banana trees. Hundreds of both in a 10 acre area for coffee.
Below, are the same plants about 9 months from the time they were cropped. It is in the middle of the harvest season now in this photo. Harvest season is usually between Sept. and Dec. The plants are harvested in stages between these months. These plants below, will not produce this year they will produce next year, and even more the year after that. We will then let them rest once more by cutting them back again in their third year. We are grooming the fields all the way through this time around because the previous farmer did not allow his plants to rest. Once we have gone through and completely groomed the field, we will us a Kona method of 1 full mature row, 1 in between full maturity row and 1 row that will be cut back like these rows were to rest for a year. By growing the coffee plants with this method it allows us to possibly grow more plants in between the rows that exist now. Thus, building back up the yield as if no coffee plants were cut back by planting extra plants, and through organic growing and composting methods the yield on the plants that will produce in any given year should be more abundant.
We spray our leaves with an organic spray of nutrients as the coffee plant needs both good soil for nutrients and good organic spray matter for the leaves. Many malnourished coffee plants come from poor nutrition on the leaves themselves. The leaves play an intrinsic part of producing healthy cherries.
Coffee growing Season and the stages of growth
1. Coffee plant flowering:
2. Immature coffee cherries:
3. Semi-mature coffee plant has immature green, maturing yellow and mature red cherries. The coffee is harvested in three stages throughout the season. Usually in Sept. Oct. and late Nov. early December.
4. Mature coffee is a brilliant cherry color. The fruit is called the coffee cherry. This plant is showing a brilliant red outcome!
Each cherry produces two coffee beans. If you find a cherry with one bean it is like finding a four leaf clover!
Coffee harvesting methods:
Coffee is hand harvested by the Guyami Indians who cross over the Talamanca mountain range by foot from Panama into Costa Rica to work during harvest season. We are told they come here because they are not paid the same wages in Panama. A coffee plant is usually harvested 3 to 4 times. The cherries ripen at different times and so must be picked in various stages and times throughout the harvest season. The Indians stay in the area for the approximate 3 month harvest period.
You can see a strange white fungus growing on the trunk of the plant this Panamanian worker is picking from. This is somewhat due to the shade, however coffee plants like shade. It is mostly due to the fact that these plants in the back part of the fields will need to be cut back next year as they have not had a chance to rest.
Our main farm hand hired this family of Guaymi Indians last year. He says they were excellent and will be back for the 2010 harvest season he hopes. I cannot wait to meet them and this little boy who is getting a first hand education at coffee harvesting! You can read more about what we are doing to help out the community of poor farmers and the Indians that work the harvest under our Community page. To learn more about how we continue to develop the farm for our workers, click to read an old posted blog entry “Making a Difference” .
Right after the harvest ends, the farm workers will set out to groom back the fields for next year. A portion (one third) of these fields you see here, will get groomed back this year in this photo as these were the mature plants that have not had a chance to rest. Those are coffee sacks at the end of each row.
The cherries are gathered and transported to the coffee processing plant.
The harvest of 2009 was a success! We sold all of our cherries to the processing plant. They have their own buyers at the processing plant. Next year we will take our cherries to the processing plant but we will dry our beans ourselves and we will sell them in the US market. Each year, developing our designer coffee for that perfect cup while providing jobs to locals in the area.
We believe we grow about 10,000 pounds of coffee beans each year. So we are planning to build several drying racks and shelter for our beans to dry the natural way. It takes about 2 weeks for the coffee beans to completely dry out. A special measuring tool is used to measure the humidity in the beans and tells us when the coffee beans are completely dry before we put the coffee in burlap sacks for storage. Our beans are called “BiolleyBuzz” and will be sold as raw beans to the US market by BCRcoffee. The goal is to be ready next year to sell the 2010 harvest in 2011. Green coffee beans will store forever if processed properly. They only become perishable when they are roasted. Roasting methods and grinding, prepping a great cup of coffee at home, will talked about soon!
Our coffee provides community, conservation and kindness in every cup!
Pura Vida!
