Coffee harvest

Following last week's mechanical harvest, the coffee cherries were processed and duly went to the next stage in their journey between tree and cup - coffee parchment:


Next stage will be green bean coffee, after the parchment/skin has been removed:


That's one green bean, and you'll notice it's not actually a green colour, more grey/blue. And that is my hand, and you'll notice it's not actually a skin colour, more extremely and weirdly pink. Eek.

The buyer for this coffee wanted it sundried for the first few days, believing it tastes better than that from a dryer. So over the weekend we spread the parchment out over concrete...


...(yes, I'm standing in it)...


...raked it periodically...


...the sun shone and a breeze blew...


...the coffee started to dry...


...and when showers moved in on Monday morning, we had time to shovel it all into boxes and get the whole kit and caboodle** undercover. Now (Wednesday) the parchment is rolling around in possibly the last available coffee dryer on the NSW North Coast, finishing off its drying process.

Time for a cup of tea, I think.

**A phrase which is both redundant and American, apparently. How annoying.