First Coffee Harvest of 2017

Every year at the end of summer, we invite the public to come to our Holualoa farm to pick the first coffee cherry of the harvest season.  This year, the turnout was fantastic with over 40 people of all ages.  These folks came from across the nation as well as from our own Kona community. We were honored to have corn farmers from Nebraska and ranchers from Maui help us celebrate our First Harvest.  

We got to know each other over pastries and of course, 100% Kona Coffee. We then toured the fields explaining the laborious process of coffee farming and what’s involved in getting that perfect cup of Kona Coffee. Then the picking began! Only the bright red coffee cherry was worthy of plucking. Post picking, we celebrated with a friendly competition by weighing each person’s harvest. The most cherry-picked Winner was Carlos, a fellow Kona coffee farmer. Figures, huh??

After all the cherry was collected, the Founders of our Farm to Cup operation (my Mom & Dad) hosted lunch for everyone outside their farm house. We served iced coffee cherry tea - an antioxidant-rich brew we have in development. As the regular afternoon clouds of Holualoa rolled in, we joked about how our coffee plants are happy to get so much love.

Thank you, to all the helping hands that came out for First Harvest!  You’ll be able to taste this in our café or in our online shop in a few weeks once the beans have been milled and roasted. We hope to share more of our Kona coffee culture with you at next year’s First Harvest.

Mahalo Cee Cee for sharing these photos!

UP NEXT: Getting Gritty - a new collaboration with a local artisan

CONTRIBUTOR: MALIA BOLTON

HOW I LIKE MY COFFEE:  Americano
FAVORITE HOMEBREW METHOD:  French Press

I was born and raised in Kona. I guess you could say that the coffee trees and I grew up together on my family’s farm. While in High School, I helped plant our first coffee (with a fair bit of complaining). I came home from college during summers to work as a barista at our first café. For the past 12 years I’ve managed our Farm to Cup operation here in Kona. I feel honored to play a role in cultivating a community around Kona coffee and hope you can taste the Aloha in every sip.