Who’s That? It’s NOT Slim Pickens

Who’s That? It’s NOT Slim Pickens was Originally Posted on August 13, 2013 by lavarock

There was a famous star back in the day called Slim Pickens. Slim was a rodeo, film and television star and some may remember him from “Dr. Strangelove” as he rode the bomb.

Well, this blog isn’t really about Slim infact slim doesn’t even (hopefully) cover the “pickins”.

Speaking of “pickins” yet having more to do with “pickings”, I have some coffee pickers scheduled to come tomorrow. This will be the first “official” picking of coffee on the farm and I have to be ready. I have picked my own coffee before, but there wasn’t much as the trees had not yet matured. Now I have lots of trees with red cherry and I am bringing in the pickers. As the season goes along, I will be getting lots of cherry I hope. Lots of cherry translates to roasted coffee, but not as equally as you would think.

To give you an idea of the process, if I was to have 30,000 pounds of cherry picked. Then I would pulp it (take off the outer cherry fruit) and be left with two beans that look like peanuts. I would lose 75% of the weight in that process.

That parchment is washed and allowed to dry to about 12% moisture. It can be stored as is, or milled.

When milled, the papery parchment covering is removed to reveal the green coffee bean. I just lost another 25% of the weight in that process. This green can also be stored but not as long as if it had been left as parchment.

When orders come in, the green is roasted to customer specifications. Roasting reduces the weight about, you guessed it, 25%. That roasted coffee is sealed in a bag and sent to customers.

That 30,000 pounds of cherry picked ends up becoming 4556 pounds of roasted, a mere 15% of the original weight.

before you start doing the math, there are many costs involved in coffee production. Spraying for insects, spraying for weeds, pruning, mulching, fertilizing, watering, picking, pulping, drying, roasting costs, bags, a sealer to seal the bags, labels and the list goes on.

While coffee from other countries might be cheaper, we think our coffee is exceptional. we also pay our workers a decent wage (they DO live in Hawaii after all). A good picker can get $100 to perhaps $200 a day I hear. It will be interesting to see what my picking costs will be.

So hopefully you will have a better understanding where your coffee comes from and the care we take.