I love drinking coffee - milky lattes sipped first thing in the morning, or as I pore over a task I am focusing on. I associate coffee with leisure, luxury, sitting down and getting shit done, and connection with others. It’s quite special that a single beverage has so many associated feelings.
I’m also enchanted by the idea of growing coffee.
It travels from such a long way away (Ethiopia, Kenya etc) and its price has increased significantly in recent years. I imagine if I can grow our coffee, it will feel incredibly satisfying to know that my tasty beverage simply travelled 50m up the hill from the bush to reach my house and my cup. I’m not sure if growing our own coffee will reduce the cost though, given that processing coffee is a very time-consuming and labour-intensive task (less $ but more time), but I think that would be worth measuring as well!
Is it even possible to grow our annual supply of coffee?
I recently completed a Permaculture Design Certificate and was chatting to Linda and Louis - the organizer’s of the course. I found out that they now produce their entire supply of coffee, 6 years on from the planting of the first coffee plant, so I grilled them on the details to see if it might work for us.
Linda and Louis’ Coffee Details
- 12 producing coffee plants
- They make a Bellman style espresso (Stove top portafilter)
- They used to go through ~1kg of coffee per month and this is now supplied fully from their own plants.
- 12kg coffee per year covered by 12 plants (1kg/plant/year)
Our Coffee Details
- We drink espresso coffee
- We have 2 coffees a day, each with 1 shot of coffee (total of 4 shots of coffee per day)
- We usually use 20g of beans for a double-shot coffee (40g beans per day)
- 40 * 365 = 14,600g per year = 14.6kg coffee per year, which is a bit higher than Linda and Louis
- We would probably add on an extra month’s worth of coffee to account for guests, the occasional 3 coffees per day and potential gifting
- Which brings us to 16kg of coffee per year (rounding up)
- By Linda and Louis’ math, we would require 16 coffee plants which is entirely feasible for our land size!
So, hypothetically, it should be possible to grow our annual supply of coffee!
The Coffee Plant
Coffee is a shade loving understory, so can be planted in many locations that wouldn’t be super serviceable for other plants.
Starting Coffee
Coffee can apparently be grown from seed (from the fresh berry) or from cuttings.
Cuttings are faster and easier, and tend to start producing fruit in 2-3 years.
Seed grown coffee plants can take up to 4 years (with 2-6 months spent germinating), but can produce healthier plants with better root systems.
I am thinking that we might buy small tube-stock seedlings, as well as buying a single coffee plant and propagating cuttings from it each year.
Varieties
The standard coffee plant you tend to see is Coffee Arabica, but I noticed there is a new variety called K7 which seems well suited to the subtropical environment of the Northern Rivers of Australia. This variety seems very promising from early studies, and is available for sale periodically.
Jobs for the Weekend (or anytime in the future)
- Acquire K7 coffee seedlings/tubestock
- Plant coffee seedlings/tubestock in a suitable long-term location