After you have harvested the berries, do not let them rot.
42. Drying the berries
Many African coffee beans are of poor quality, because
the berries have not been well dried.
To dry the berries well, spread them out in a dry
place, either on very clean ground or on planks.
Protect the berries against rain by building a little
shelter.
43. Pulping the berries
When the berries are dry, pulp them.
We have seen that the berries consist of skin, pulp
and two coffee beans.
To pulp berries means to separate the beans from the
pulp and skin.
Pulping can be done by hand with a pestle, which
breaks the skin and pulp, or with pulping machines.
44. Winnowing
To winnow means to separate the coffee beans from
all the bits of pulp and skin.
You can winnow with a sieve.
45. Drying coffee beans
Dry the coffee beans in a very dry place, either on
hard and very clean ground, or on planks.
The layer of beans should not be too thick.
Stir the beans often.
46. Sorting coffee beans
In order to have good-quality coffee which can be sold at a good price:
Put to one side all the whole beans, for which you will get a good price;
Put elsewhere the broken beans, for which you will get a lower price;
Throw away black beans, which bring down the quality a lot.
In order to earn a lot of money, the grower must sell many coffee beans, and these coffee beans must be of good quality.
In order to have many coffee beans, the grower must prune his coffee trees well and apply fertilizer.
In order to have good-quality coffee beans, the grower must harvest the berries correctly and process the coffee beans well.
