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Showing posts with the label picking

Coffee - yesssssss. Growing and Roasting.

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 Somewhere back I wrote about being somewhat of a coffee snob. But still I set out grow and roast my own and I did it on my first go. Totally surprised but it is really good.  Here is the video of the process 1. Growing. I started without any knowledge, I just saw a coffee tree at a nursery and thought I'd give it a go. Turns out the little tree was actually a miniature so it less than a meter high after 3 years but is covered in fruit. I started out with the tree planted in a position where it just got too wet and the leaves all fell off. I then moved it to a dryer position which is actually under the drop line of a huge gumtree.  2. Pulping. You just squeeze the berries and the seed covered in a slimy substance shoot out. Derrrr keep the seeds and feed the skins to the chooks.  4. Fermentation. It should be called simply, soaking. Toss the seeds in fresh water and leave them for around 2 days - 18 to 24 hours.  Don't be too particular you can feel the regular ...

Paddock to Plate and Nutrient Loss

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Some spinach can loose 90% of it’s nutritional value within 24 hours of picking. The term paddock to plate as far as I can see is just some chefs with their heads up their own bums trying to convince people their food is fresh – “more seasoning you bloody idiot, where is the salt you fool”, that’s because the produce has already lost it’s flavour.  Now I’m not a scientist I’m just a farmer these days who likes to read what scientists whom study stuff about farming have found. Following is my quick summation, main sources listed below.  Many articles with actual scientific data are from the US where methods of getting food from California to the supermarkets in New York then into the fridges of consumers has been studied.  After harvesting  plants continue to ‘live’ or  ‘breathe’ and that process is called respiration.  This process is the breakdown of materials such as carbohydrates, fats and proteins that leads to a loss of...