Field of Science

Coffee fruit

Oh, look at this! The coffee crop is ripening, so it won't be long and the Phactor will have to bring in a bus load of students to pick the crop. Hopefully there will be enough for my class to harvest, process, and roast their own. These are coffee "cherries", a two-seeded berry. Each of the two seeds is a coffee "bean", which is not a legume no matter what they are called. The leaves are dark green and glossy, and the fruits so bright, so why don't we have some nice seasonal decorations fashioned after coffee? This is the first really decent coffee crop since some moron broke into the glass house and stole a coffee tree if full fruit in freezing weather. The trail of leaves and berries could even be followed by one of our campus police, but the tree did not survive it's winter outing. The replacement trees were small and have taken awhile to mature, so this is pretty exciting. Or maybe it's just the caffeine talking.

3 comments:

Roberta said...

This is very cool. I once grew a coffee plant in my home that actually produced fruit, but only two.

Too bad about the last plant.

ChilledMind said...

Just wow. I want too grow my own coffee berries, but I don't live between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn or coffee bean belt for an optimal growing environment.

The Phytophactor said...

That is a real problem for sure.