Growing your own coffee is not the easiest thing to do. Harvesting coffee beans at home is quite the unique experience in Canada. We have a coffee tree that I have been nurturing for about 6 years. It was purchased from Colasanti's as a tropical plant for our house (for DD#1 actually) and was about 18"tall. Now it is about 5' tall and covered with flowers.
The first year this plant had 2 flowers, and produced 2 beans that I harvested. Not enough even to roast or use for a coffee. I kept it well watered and let it grow.
When we moved, it suffered wind abuse and most of its leaves were lost. All I had left (2009) was a bare skeleton of a tree.
Last week I noticed a couple of new buds. Woo hoo! I might get 2 more coffee beans. Then I noticed that there were branches covered in buds. Now they are all in flower. This is so much fun!
 |
| Notice the tiny buds where the leaves join the stem |
 |
| This is the same branch, a few days later. |
 |
| The branch in the background is the one featured in the other photos. |
 |
| A little bit of a closer look at the opening flower |
What does this tree like? It likes to be in bright indirect sunlight (close to the southern window in winter, about 6 ' back from the window in summer). I have been watering it with tea. Yes, my coffee tree drinks tea. I wonder if I will have enough beans to roast for 1 cup of coffee? I would love to taste it. I can hardly wait for the beans to develop. Watch this space.....
This is exciting. I want to try this.
ReplyDeleteHey...this is very cool!!! So much more interesting than anything that's growing around my house.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info you left in your most recent comment to me. I wanted to respond to tell you I can't remove the paper the way you suggest because the method I use ( I don't use any starch or needled turn) has ALL of the edges of the fabric glued down to the paper, so you can't loosen the paper without wetting to dissolve the glue. I plan to experiment with a few possibilities.