Maybe ask Juan Valdez to come over and help.

Hmmmm, don't know why the photo isn't showing... it worked in the preview. I guess I don-t have the hang of posting photos yet after all.
If Juan Valdez lived here he'd certainly be helping someone right now. Everyone pitches in to pick when it's ¨coffee time¨.

It's there for me.

Gardenkat, what a first for me.
I've never known anyone who grew their own coffee.
After you pick the fruit, what happens next?

The picture came through perfectly for me.

The picture showed on my puter.
I've never seen a coffee plant. Interesting to see the red and green fruit. During WWII the green coffee beans were shipped to different countries and a cottage industry was formed by roasting the green beans and selling them as coffee.

Now it seems that the red fruit is in vouge. Things change.

janis - Some of the fruit is sold raw right after being picked. The rest of it we keep to process ourselves. After we pick the fruit we will keep, the outer red flesh is removed. This is done by hand by squeezing between thumb and fingers and the bean (which is actually the seed of the plant) pops out. It's not difficult but it is time consuming. Then the beans are soaked in water for about 36 hours to ferment. Then they're washed and spread on a tarp to dry in the sun. We do all this here at home. When the beans are completely dry we take them into town where we have them roasted and packaged in 1 lb. bags. Because all the fruit on a plant does not ripen at the same time each plant will get picked three or four times over the next month. At this time of year there are weighing stations set up along the road for the buyers who come along in trucks. There are also food stalls along the road to service the many pickers. In San Pedro you see tarps everywhere of coffee beans drying. Many people depend on the coffee harvest to support themselves. It's just a sideline for us to supply ourselves with coffee for the year and a little left over to sell. I was never much of a coffee drinker back in the U.S. and I still don't drink a lot of it here. But what I drink, I really enjoy. It's very good coffee!

west gardener - Around here everyone picks only the red fruit. I'm no expert on coffee, just know how we do it. But after being cleaned of the outer red flesh the beans are sometimes referred to as ¨green¨. I wonder if that might be what was being shipped out in WW11?

cool beans....pun intended...if you like coffee

The picture showed up fine for me, too. How fascinating to grow your own coffee. How many plants do you need to get a year's supply? I know you said the plant "will be picked three or four times over the next month", but would one plant be enough for a year's supply? Plus, do they grow big or are they more on the order of a tomato plant?

It's quite a process from red bean to coffee in your cup, isn't it?

Isn't coffee arabica (is that your species?) a shurb? I imagine, it gets pretty big and would be more along the lines of berry picking. :) Yea for red "berries" Kat!

rob333 - yes,arabica is the kind we grow. Most of the plants are 6-7 feet high with some as high as 10 feet. (Those will be pruned down after the harvest)
mwheel - We have about a quarter acre of plants. One plant alone would not give you much coffee, it would hardly be worth it.

I always learn something on the Garden Party. Thanks for being kind with my ignorance! :>)

All I remember is that when the "green" colored coffee beans were delivered, the family went into high gear to roast the beans and sell them. I also remember that the family would sit down together and have a cup of "coffee".
I don't know anything about how coffee beans are grown or processed. It sounds like coffee is still a cottage industry.

I'm impressed, gardenkat, thanks for the information.
That is pretty darn cool.

Once when we were in Granada or somewhere on an island we
were driving out in the boonies and came across some women
up on elevated tables turning cocoa beans with their bare
feet. They explained that the beans had to be turned so they
would dry evenly. They covered the beans with banana leaves if it rained.