Farming Practices
Growing the CoffeeMany people have expressed surprise at the expense of Blue Mountain coffee without understanding the processes that are involved in the growing and picking, let alone the processing. Almost all the work is done by hand with great attention paid to moisture content and grading of the bean.
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Hand picking the beans is laborious and time consuming - imagine thousands of coffee farmers spread over the Blue Mountains picking cherries which can only be collected by authorized processors. It is then pulped, fermented, dried, hulled and winnowed. The Coffee Board carefully checks the colour and moisture content of the bean before the processor can proceed to roasting.
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Coffee ripens at different times of the year depending on the altitude of the farms. So essentially coffee is collected almost year round as the processors need the “cherries” within 24 hour after picking. Every coffee growing area has depots where the beans are collected from the farmers awaiting the trucks to take them to the factory.
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