Can I grow coffee plants so I can pick my own beans? January 12, 2006
Question Can I grow coffee plants so I can pick my own beans?
Answer It is believed that members of the Galla tribe discovered the first coffee berries growing in Ethiopia around 1000 AD (it is actually a berry not a bean). Arab traders picked up the plants and cultivated them for the next 400 years. During the 1500's, coffee migrated to Persia, Egypt, Syria and Turkey. It was only a short jump to Italy and Europe after that. In 1690, the Dutch were the first to commercially cultivate coffee in their East Indian colony of Java. A French naval officer stole a seedling from King Louis XIV in 1713 and took it to the Caribbean Island of Martinique. While settling a border dispute between the French and Dutch, a Brazilian Lieutenant colonel smuggled some cuttings and seeds back into Brazil. In less than a century, Brazil dominated the world's coffee industry.
Every discoverer of coffee guarded and treated it as a national treasure. Yet like a high dollar dog, the coffee plant managed to escape it's captors and find a new home.
The genus Coffea is a member of the Rubiaceae family which includes more than 500 genera and 6,000 species of tropical trees and shrubs. Even though there are about 25 major species within Coffea, the coffee the world drinks is made from the fruit of only two: Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora 'Robusta'. Coffea arabica accounts for about 70% of world coffee production and is used in most drip coffee makers. 'Robusta' accounts for most of the other 30% and is primarily used as instant coffees.
Coffee plants require pretty warm growing conditions. Therefore, all coffee is grown within 1,000 miles of the equator (from the Tropic of Cancer in the north to the Tropic of Capricorn in the south). Hawaii is the only state in the US that grows coffee. The answer to your question is no, unless you own a mountain in Brazil or Hawaii.
Before you feel too dejected remember this: a coffee tree only produces about one usable pound of beans per year. Most of us would have to own a plantation in order to supply our habit. Since the coffee trees don't want to grow around here anyway, why not let Juan Valdez deliver? If you want to know more about growing fruit trees, then call me at 910-893-7533, write me at PO Box 1089, Lillington, NC 27546 or email me at gary_pierce@ncsu.edu The most expensive coffee beans in the world sell for about $175 per pound. The Kopi Luwak beans are said to have a unique taste and aroma. These beans are eaten by an Indonesia cat-like creature called a palm civet. After passing through the civet's digestive tract, the beans are then collected, roasted and sold to folks with more money than sense. They say there's nothing like the smell of a cup of Crappuccino in the morning. |
