Hava and I picked some ripe cherries off the Coffea Arabica var. Caturra tree that lives on the same finca we do.

[a little coffee note found on www.coffeeresearch.com]
The coffee plant is a woody perennial evergreen dicotyledon that belongs to the Rubiaceae family. It has a main vertical trunk (orthotropic) and primary, secondary, and tertiary horizontal branches (plagiotropic). Two main species of coffee are cultivated today. Coffea arabica known as Arabica coffee accounts for 75-80% of the world’s production. Coffea canephora, known as Robusta coffee, is more robust than the Arabica plants, but produces an inferior tasting beverage with a higher caffeine content. The coffee plant can grow to heights of 10 meters if not pruned, but producing countries will maintain the coffee at a height reasonable for easy harvesting.

Caturra - Caturra is a mutation of Bourbon discovered in Brazil. It is a mutation with high production and good quality, but requires extensive care and fertilization. It is short with a thick core and has many secondary branches. It has large leaves with wavy borders similar to Bourbon. It adapts well to almost any environment, but does best between 1,500-5,500 feet with annual precipitation between 2,500-3,500 mm. At higher altitudes quality increases, but production decreases.
[end coffeeresearch.com]

When you take the outer skin of the cherry off, there is a sticky “fruit” or “mucilage” that surrounds the beans. In a commercial setting they would put the de-pulped beans in huge fermenting tanks and let them sit for about 36 hours. They are then washed to remove the mucilage and are considered “in pergamino.” The pergamino is a thin parchment layer over the green bean that is also removed before roasting.

For our purpose, we took the cherry skin off and left the mucilage and pergamino on. We then placed them in 1 1/2 inches of dirt. In about 2 months there should be little coffee plants pushing through the dirt.

I have a Coffea Arabica var blue mountain plant from Kona Hawaii back in Birmingham. They are about 1 year old now, and should be doing quite nicely. Hopefully, our little growing experiment will be successful, and our Kona can have some Guatemalan buddies in a few months.

This is a link to a flash video of how a coffee bean matures.

www.coffeeresearch.org\agriculture\beandevel.htm



The mucilage wrapped green bean out of the cherry.



from top to bottom: Cherry, Mucilage, in Pergamino, Clean Green Coffee


Cherry.


Hava pupling coffee to plant.