Friday afternoon fun - Village style

Ever wonder how things are made? Or how they are manufactured? I do, quite a bit, and I love to get the answers to my questions...especially first hand.

This afternoon we went to Greenwell Farms which is a coffee plantation which only produces Kona coffee. Any of you who are coffee lovers know well that Kona coffee is some of the best coffee in the world. It is also the only American grown coffee.

When you first arrive at the farm it is pretty underwhelming, there is just a little building where they have coffee samples and a few other things. A nice young gal asked if Alan and I wanted a tour so we headed out...was a quiet day today on the farm.

She first took us to a couple of coffee trees that were the originals planted by the founder over 100 years ago. They are still producing the coffee cherry. They don't use these for coffee any longer but instead keep them around from a sentimental perspective. I think it is pretty cool given that the farm is now being run by a fourth generation Greenwell.


She next took us to the coffee production area:

Yep, that is the production facility where just about 40% of all Kona coffee beans are processed. The Greenwell farm has about 35 acres of land where they grow coffee. In addition, they accept beans from local farmers. While we were on our tour we watched a handful of these farmers come in and drop off their freshly picked coffee.

Right now, the farmers are getting $1.10 per pound. A full bag of beans typically weighs about 100 pounds and takes about a day to pick. However, the growing season is about 4-6 months long only so there isn't a huge yield if you only have a few trees.

The beans are processed as soon as they arrive at the farm. There is only about a 24 hour period from when they are picked to when they are processed so things happen pretty quickly.
It is actually a pretty simple process. The beans get placed into the above piece of machinery which separates the beans from the hulls (red things in the back). Most coffee cherries have two beans inside. As soon as the beans come out they are soaked for a couple of days.

Once they have soaked long enough they are scooped out and placed on big drying racks (you can see them behind the soaking area) to dry. When they are out in the sun they have to be turned every 30 minutes or so.

All of this is done by hand. Since the harvest season has just arrived they have to work the hours based on the amount of coffee that comes in or is picked on the farm itself. In the past 48 hours they received over 600 pounds of coffee so the workers have been pulling 16 hour shifts just to keep up.

Once the beans are dried they get sent to the storage facility on the property. They have a shelf-life of 2 years in their unroasted stage. The picture below shows the beans from the past couple of days being transported to the storage facility.

The beans will stay at the storage facility until roasters or local coffee shops place an order. They are then sent out, roasted, ground, brewed, and then they become the super tasty coffee that we all enjoy.