Processing coffee beans

We picked the ripe coffee beans on a working bee Sunday in December with help from Steve. I think we had about half a bucketful (10L?). We consulted a guide to home processing found on the web. John started by discarding under ripe (green) and over ripe (black) beans. At this stage the bean is still covered with fruity pulp which needs to be fermented off, so the bucket was filled with water and left outside for a few days. The beans were then squeezed free of the pulp and soaked in more water to remove the slippery mucilage layer. Any beans that floated were discarded. Karyn vigorously washed the beans until they felt gritty. The wet beans were then placed in colanders and dried on a balcony in the sun for a few weeks.

The next step involved removing the dried husk to reveal the 'green' coffee bean inside. This is the most tedious part of the process and of course it is done by machines commercially. We shared the task and managed to chat at the same time but progress was slow and we are still only half way through a kilo of coffee beans!
At our next working bee we may attempt roasting, grinding and drinking.......

Time for Coffee

Its a cooler overcast afternoon for a change - Shez, Karen & I process some coffee beans. Karen has already soaked & removed the outer flesh, so now we break thin inner skin off each individual bean! any coffee we eventually drink from these beans will be worth a fortune.

Coffee beans on the tree before they were harvested

Tomato Bottling

With a bumper crop from one of the school gardens, we needed to preserve them so they wouldn't go to waste. So with the help of Lou & Silvana (Ill need to check the spelling) we all gather to do some tomato sauce bottling the traditional Italian way. It was a great day despite the heat. (strong westerly blew all day until the southerly change hit just as were were about to leave.)


Pic 1. Aaron fills container of tomatoes with water so they are clean for chopping up.


Pic 2. The tomatoes are cut and inspected. Any bad bits get put aside.


Pic 3 How many tomatoes have these hands cut?



Pic 4


Pic 5 Lou sets up the grinder



Pic 6 Tomatoes in the top sauce out the bottom

More to come.....

NEXT WORKING BEE

Remember the next working bee will be Sunday 1st of February
All welcome - we start around 10 am and will be having lunch at the garden.

If someone can figure out how I add an event to the little calander on the left let me know.

Tuesday evening

Another warm day, the green corps group have been down and done some clearing around our kitchen area which was badly needed, I brought my brush cutter down and cleaned around the piles of wood etc. Scott from (POG) turns up, along with Cody (I Think) and her mum we all get stuck in and give the garden a good watering. I feed the chooks after letting them out for a bit of a run. - 1 EGG. Then Scott and I start clearing the grass edges along the cement pad. Aaron & John are off harvesting tomato's from one of the school gardens.

Its been hot today as well and I didnt get home till late so did get down to the garden today.

Checking layout on different computer

Wow just checked this to see how it looks on a different computer .... as is the nature of the web it looks a lot different text is under all the pics instead of beside it & text next to Profile pic is wrapping a lot more. HUMMM will have to work on this..

Beautiful morning... no wind & clear sky had a surf at Corrimal not very good hardly any swell & no real banks.. wind starting to pick up from the south east so we probably got the best of it even if it was crap,
We are getting sick of this nice summer wheather need some storms to give us some waves...

daily log

Just playing with some of the gadgets it all seems OK but would like to have have photo albums as part of this site instead of linking to another??

Also want a calendar that I can add appointments etc I'm sure there is one just need to find it.

Went to "The Garden" around 6pm waited til it was a bit cooler has been Sunny & hot all day with a strong Noreaster wind but by 6 the clouds had come over and looks lake a change on the way.
Checked the visitors book & noones been here today So I let the chooks out for a run.. they love it and are really active, good to see them back in a good state. Watered the Nursery.. Planned to dig up the Lemon & Vetiva grass (behind keyhole bed) to divide it up & plant some out the front. but buy the time I water the tomatos & beens and do a bit of tiodying up of the pathways its time be home for dinner. Just starting to rine lightly as I leave Then we get a bit of steady rain for an hour or so.
Heres some photos I took the other day.

First Posting

Hi this is our first post
Just setting this blog up as a link for all members & others interested in community & organic gardens