Coffee Beans: Kenya Coffee Calender

Origins of Coffee Beans

Originally the cherry sized red berries of the coffee tree, native to Ethopia, were used as food, the pulp crushed and mixed with fat, and fermented to make a type of wine.
The first cultivation of the coffee bean is thought to have its origins to a variety fast grown at mocha, Yemen, across the Red Sea from Ethopia, around the 13th Century.
There it aquired it's Arabic name, qahva, a poetic word for wine, which was tranfered to the drink made from roasted coffee berries. The drink gradually became popular throughout the Arab world and by the mid 19th century was intoduced into Europe. The term coffee is an attempt at pronouncing the Arabic word.
The best coffee beans come from trees of the coffee arabica species. That is the variety introduced to Kenya by Catholic missionaries in the 1890s. Coffee became a valuable crop in Kenya after world War 1.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Kenya Coffee Calender

January
• Processing (picking, pulping and drying)
• Marketing of coffee
• Pruning and change of cycle
• Insect pest survey and control
• Land preparation for new establishment
• Soil and leaf sampling
• Farm records

February
• Marketing of coffee
• Disease and insect pests control
• Pruning and change of cycle
• Land preparation for new establishment
• Soil and leaf sampling
• Farm records

March
• Land preparation
• Marketing of coffee
• Disease and insect pests control
• Farm records
• Fertilizer application

April
• Planting new establishment
• Weed control
• Disease and insect pests control
• Fertilizers application
• Handling and desuckering
• Processing (picking, pulping and sun drying)

May
• Disease and insect pests’ control
• Processing (picking, pulping and drying)
• Handling and desuckering
• Fertilizers application
• Farm records
• Weed control

June
• Disease and insect pests’ control
• Handling and desuckering
• Processing (picking, pulping and sun drying)
• Farm records

July
• Handling and desuckering
• Processing (picking, pulping and sun drying)
• Insect pests control
• Farm records
• Pruning and change of cycle
• Weed control
• Marketing of coffee

August
• Processing (drying and storage)
• Pruning and change of cycle
• Land preparation for new establishment
• Weed control (perennial weeds)
• Soil and leaf sampling
• Farm records
• Marketing

September
• Insect pest survey and control
• Soil and leaf sampling
• Pruning and change of cycle
• Farm records
• Processing and marketing of coffee

October
• Diseases and insect pest control
• Soil and leaf sampling
• Farm records
• Processing (picking, pulping and drying)
• Weed control

November
• Processing (picking, pulping and
drying)
• Disease and insect pests control
• Fertilizer application
• Weed control
• Farm records
• Handling and desuckering

December
• Processing (picking, pulping and
drying)
• Weed control
• Disease and insect pests control
• Handling and desuckering
• Fertilizer application
• Farm records