The Coffee Plants Are Fine, but Cup’s Empty
As a joke, William Lang brought home six seeds of coffee (the unroasted beans) from a trip to Colombia, back when Colombia was best known for its coffee. What could be a better souvenir for a dedicated gardener like his brother-in-law, Edward Dunn, who immediately planted them in little pots.
All six germinated and grew. He planted two and gave the others away. That was in 1980, and today these two plants are about 10 to 12 feet tall, as tall as they are likely to become, and they produce thousands of fragrant, lemon-scented flowers and lots of dark red fruit that look like cranberries.
On one occasion, says Ruth Dunn, his wife, they harvested 17 pounds of berries from the two bushes (which bear most of the year) and spread them out in the sun to dry. “But, all we got were 17 pounds of mildewed berries. We never have figured out how to get the beans out!”
The beans are encased in a sticky pulp inside the berries and are not easy to separate, “but who cares?” Ruth Dunn says. “The bushes are as pretty as can be and are green and flowery all year.”
They are watered along with the impatiens that grow underneath, so they get lots of water. Both grow in full sun, but the happier plant is protected from the wind by the house. The leaves are dark green and hang down and the whole plant looks much like a common Ficus benjamina , except it is narrow, only about 4 feet wide, and is covered with small, white flowers. They began producing berries after about three or four years in the ground.
David Silber runs a rare fruit nursery in Granada Hills and he hasn’t had the same kind of luck, having lost coffee plants to frost. He says the berries are actually called cherries and suggests that inland gardeners might have better luck growing them in partial shade, where they are protected from sun and frost.
He also sells young plants of common coffee--should you wish to start your own plantation--and a relative, Caffea liberica, that makes an even prettier bush. His nursery is open by appointment only: (818) 363-3680.
Silber knows how to get the beans out: squish the fruit, then let it (juice and all) ferment in a big pot for a day. That loosens the skin and pulp. Then wash it off and let it dry. There is a papery husk around the beans that must be peeled off after first rubbing the seeds together to loosen it. Then the beans can be roasted in the oven on a cookie sheet.
