Monday
20Nov
Keeping up with Puna coffee
Monday, November 20, 2006 at 01:11PM Former Hawaii Tribune-Herald reporter and sometime contributor to this blog, Dave Smith, has an article in the new Hawaii Island Journal (no link yet) on Puna's coffee industry ("East Side Grind: Commercial coffee returns to Puna"). According to Smith, the production of coffee in Puna near the end of the 19th century actually doubled the size of Kona's current-day crop. Not mentioned was that much of the crop in Puna's coffee heyday was grown in Puna Makai. The remains of a fairly extensive coffee plantation are still visible (on private property) adjacent to Isaac Hale Beach Park, for example.
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Reader Comments (2)
6th Ave HPP.
We got our first roast last year: "exceeded expectations."
;>)
Much more this time and we hope to roast in about one month.
The heat and humidity here seems to suit the coffee trees growing in lava rock -- they thrive The summer sun can scald the cherry a bit and we are working on some strategies to control that.
Also, something very different than Kona, is the way flowering happens. In the Kona coffee belt, where very fine coffee is grown, there is a distinct season. Coffee makes flowers when it receives some soil moisture after a period of no rain. In Kona, especially at higher elevation, a distinct dry season followed by mild temperatures and rain every day in the evening, means the coffee makes flowers and sets fruit (cherry) in a defined period of time.
Here in Puna Makai, this year, as is often the case, we received some periods of a few weeks of rain followed by a shorter dry period, and the rain and then dry again. This resulted in multiple flowering periods and picking over a much longer period of time.
Thats good to hear that Puna makai (James W) is having much success with coffee.