I honestly have a hard time believing I decided to undertake this project. I mean, of course it is something I would do… Highly impractical, low chance of success, no other fool would even attempt it.
Sounds like a challenge to me.
So I decided to grow my own coffee. I live in New Hampshire, so that means we have winter here. No coffee plants will survive under 40 degrees, never mind below freezing. I ordered three plants with the hope that at least one would survive. They took four years to grow, finally one flowered, fruit grew with the coffee seeds inside and took 8 months to ripen.
I make all this possible with my indoor greenhouse. In the summer they can hang out on the deck, and the cooler months (about 8 months really) they stay inside in my basement greenhouse which is lit up and heated. There is a heater that runs on a max/min temperature gauge and lights that are on a timer. It is by far perfect, and I forget to water the plants a lot being in the basement, and the plants sure do shed some leaves out of stress… But still, I got coffee!
How crazy is that? I have since let the beans dry. Time to weigh them and get out my roaster. Looks like I’ll have enough to make a cup of coffee. Ha.
I should be able to make a pot of coffee. So four years in the making, one pot of coffee. Probably not the best return on investment.
This was just off of one plant. The other two are starting to flower now and are timing it perfectly for the summer and the bees. So 8 months from now I should have another harvest!
