Kauai Coffee

We returned to Kauai Coffee to take their tour. You pay for this one, but they take you into the fields to see the massive operation.

This massive farm has 4 million coffee trees and harvests from 3 million each year. The farm is on the dry side of the island, but canals bring water from the mountains where it rains more than 400 inches per year. This water is filtered by running the water through sand filters and then sent out to the plants using drip irrigation. Thin plastic tubing run down each row. The final photo is of the recycling effort which generates compost. The trees would grow tall without constant pruning necessary to refresh the plant for more active growth and to keep the trees to a height suited for mechanical picking. Green matter and the residue from the harvest are composted.

Probably the thing I learned this year that disputed an existing view was that all coffee cherries were red. The most common variety on this farm is a yellow variety.

We finished the outing by planting some coffee beans - Blue Mountain. It takes at least 5 years to get these new plants to the point they will produce.