3 stages of coffee ripeness: under ripe, ripe and raisin
At the end of October, the coffee trees heavy with fruit, the equipment prepared and the crew ready to go, we launched into our 2009 -2010 harvest season and brought the first coffee cherry to the mill for processing.
So, how do we harvest over 150 acres with a lean crew of nine workers? We send two to the field to pick cherry and have seven at the mill to process and dry.
Chris and Eddie run the harvester
Oh, did I mention the Korvan Harvester? This peppy little mule is operated by our two harvesters Eddie and Chris.
Korvan Harvesters were designed to be used in the fruit and berry industry for harvesting blueberry, raspberries, and grapes. The machines were custom modified to be used in the coffee industries from Brazil, to Australia to Hawaii. They have been operated in this industry for over 20 years now and are especially useful where coffee production has large tracts of hedge row tress and terrain that is open and rolling. Thus the equipment is adaptable to those coffee operations that were planted on former sugar cane lands, but would not be useful in steep, rocky terrain areas.
Korvan Coffee Harvester
The harvester uses a large wide picking tunnel that allows the machine to straddle the coffee hedge rows and the fiberglass fingers comb through the tree and cause the loose cherry to drop down to collection plates and onto a unique bucket conveyance system that gently carries the fruit to a holding box.
In this way we are processing between 10,000 to 15,000 lbs of coffee cherry on a harvest day and harvesting around 4 days per week and will harvest around
Harvest of under ripe, ripe cherry and raisin
500,000 lbs of coffee cherry between November and January.
Next time, we’ll take a look at how the under ripe, ripe and raisin coffee is separated, pulped and dried at the coffee mill.
Aloha, Derek
The first load of the 09-10 harvest season
stopped by for a cup a coffee and to pick up some of the Kunia coffee we milled and roasted (a nice mix of multi variety coffees harvested at the coffee research station). HARC specializes in horticultural crop research and provides a good deal of information and consulting for the Hawaiian Coffee and Cacao industry, developing new coffee cultivars and a better understanding of the science of agriculture and its application for the farmer. 
