Harvest by Stripping
Strip all the cherries off the coffee tree. One sweep of a branch removes the ripe as well as the unripe berries. Commercial growers use machines to remove all the berries. This method is used when the majority of the berries are ripe. Though there is a significant amount of waste when coffee is harvested by stripping, the cost is worth it for commercial growers who find this method more cost effective than the time and financial investment involved in selective harvesting. You can strip harvest at home by hand by grabbing a branch and sliding your hand forward to knock all the cherries off the tree and onto the ground.
Rake the coffee cherries. Use a rake to gather the cherries that have been knocked to the ground. You can place a sheet or netting under the tree to collect the cherries as they fall. This will make the task of picking them up from the ground easier.
Sort the coffee cherries. Separate the ripe from the unripe cherries. Remove any leaves and branch pieces that may have gotten mixed in. The refuse can be thrown out or placed in your compost pile.
What Happens Next
Pulp the berries. Squeeze the cherries to separate the seed or the coffee bean from the fruit.
Soak the beans. After you have separated the beans from the fruit, some meat will remain on the beans. Soak them in a bowl or bucket of water for one to two days to break down the fruit and separate it from the bean. The fruit will float to the top and can be discarded, while the beans sink to the bottom of the bowl.
Dry the beans. Drying the beans is a lengthy process, taking between 10 to 30 days, depending on the weather. It is worth the wait, however. Lay the bean on a wire mesh or concrete somewhere outdoors in the shade. Several times each day, stir and rotate the beans to make sure they dry evenly. You will know the beans are dry when their outer skin flakes off easily.
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