The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1956, Blaðsíða 28

26
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Summer 1956
snugly within the two protecting
covers.
As in the case of cocoa production
the main work after the coffee cherries
have been gathered is to separate the
pulp from the coffee beans. The parch-
ment and silver skin are removed
later. There are two methods of separ-
ating the pulp. There is a dry method:
the coffee cherries are spread on a flat
surface and allowed to dry in the sun.
This is the more primitive method
and originated in Arabia. Then there
is the wet method, the one in common
Four parchment coffee-beans inside of which
are two actual coffee beans facing each other.
practice in the West Indies and often
called The West Indies method. The
coffee cherries are put in a tank of
water. The mature berries sink and
are drawn off from the tanks through
pipes into the pulping machines. In
these machines a rough surfaced cyl-
inder revolves close to a curved iron
or steel plate. In this way a lot of the
pulp is loosened from the berries. The
mixture of pulp and berries is carried
to a second tank of water and stirred.
The more light pulp is removed by
a stream of water and the berries are
allowed to settle. Then there is a wait-
ing period and a certain degree of
fermentation is allowed to take place.
There are subsequent washings, ac-
companied by trampling with bare
feet. This is done by the natives. Mrs.
Wright says, with a wink of her eye,
that if you give them a little rum their
feet move faster. (She is a tee-totaller
herself). This is followed by stirring
by rakes, or machines especially made
for that purpose. In this way the parch-
ment covering, with the coffee beans
inside, is clean and free of the pulp.
The beans are then dried on barbecues
or in trays—in some districts by arti-
ficial heat. In this state the coffee is
called prachment coffee and it is ready
for the market as it can be shipped and
kept in that state for a considerable
time. The removing of the parchment
and silver skin may however be done
on the plantation. After a thorough
drying the parchment is broken by a
roller and it, as well as the silver skin,
removed by fanning. Rubbing is ap-
plied and more winnowing and finally
the beans are in the condition of ord-
inary green coffee beans. Later the
coffee beans are sorted by means of
sieves into uniform sizes and broken
beans and foreign material removed.
It is estimated that a coffee tree yields
about two pounds of marketable
coffee.
Mrs. Wright grows two kinds of
coffee, the usual “plain grown” vari-
ety and then a very special grade of
the famous Blue Mountain coffee, a
variety mostly produced in Jamaica.
The chief citrus fruits grown on
Mrs. Wright’s plantation are grapefruit
and oranges. The terrain, however,
makes it impossible to form large fruit
groves and for that reason citrus fruits
are not produced on a large scale on
the Springhill Estate. But that does
not mean that the trees are neglected
or inferior fruit produced. There is
a grapefruit tree not far from the