You're probably not planning on moving to a remote high-altitude location and starting a coffee plantation, but know that you can get a small crop on your own property as well. In this case, you need to know how to harvest the beans. It is important to know that the bean is inside the parchment, the peel and that it grows on the coffee tree. The coffee is harvested once a year, when most of the cherries (or drupes) are ripe. Industrial level growers use one of several coffee harvesting methods. Small farm growers do not have huge yields and do not need mechanical harvesting methods. The main manual methods can certainly be implemented by small direct farmers.
Steps
Method 1 of 4: Selective Harvesting
Step 1. Collect the ripe coffee berries
Leave the unripe fruit on the plants so they can ripen and be harvested later. You can tell if they are ripe for their appearance and texture. Press the fruit gently, if it is ripe it is slightly soft and gives a little when you squeeze it. You also understand that it is ready to be picked up when it has a bright, shiny red color. Put all the ready-made fruits in a basket.
Method 2 of 4: Harvesting By Stripping
Step 1. Tear off all the fruit from the plant
"Raking" an entire branch allows you to remove all the berries, ripe and unripe. Industrial level growers use machines to harvest all the fruits. This method is used when most of the berries are ripe. Although there is a significant amount of waste when stripping coffee is harvested, the cost incurred for the operation is amply repaid to growers, who find this method more cost-effective than the time and financial investment that would involve harvesting. selective. You can manually pluck the kernels for your home brew by grabbing a branch and sliding your hand forward to remove all the berries from the tree and drop them to the ground.
Step 2. Collect the Coffee Fruits
Use a rake to collect berries that have been removed from the branches and fallen to the ground. If you wish, you can put a tarp or net under the tree to make it easier to collect the drupes as they fall. This will make the task of picking them up off the ground easier.
Step 3. Divide the berries
Separate the ripe ones from the unripe ones. Remove any leaves and pieces of branches that may have remained with the fruit. You can throw the scraps in the trash or put them in the compost pile.
Method 3 of 4: Mechanical Harvesting
Step 1. Remove the coffee drupes with a machine
Large industrial growers use large harvesting machines to remove fruit from plants. Some machines vibrate the trunk, shaking the berries so that they fall to the ground. Other tools instead have brushes that detach the fruit from the tree.
Method 4 of 4: After Harvest
Step 1. Break the berries
Squeeze them to separate the seed or coffee bean from the shell.
Step 2. Soak the beans
Once separated from the shell, some pulp remains on the beans. Soak them in a bowl or tub of water for a day or two to break down the peel and separate it from the grain. The lighter outer part rises to the surface and can be discarded, while the beans settle to the bottom of the container.
Step 3. Dry the beans
The drying process is quite long and takes between 10 and 30 days, depending on the climatic conditions. Either way, it's definitely worth the wait. Place the beans on a wire mesh or concrete base somewhere outdoors, in the shade. Make sure you move and rotate them several times a day to make sure they dry evenly. You can tell that they are dry when you can easily peel off their outer film.
