A few of our trees were bursting with coffee cherry yesterday, so I impulsively began to pick them until the bottom of my t-shirt resembled a kangaroo pouch. I pulped them by hand, a sticky, messy task, then soaked them over night to ferment them. The soaking removed what's called the mucilage, the slimy goo that remains around the seed, 
otherwise known as the coffee bean. In a few hours I'll take them out of the water and dry them by spreading them out on a cookie sheet and putting them in Ron's office with the dehumidifier cranked. I can finish the drying tomorrow morning in the oven, set on a low warm temp. Eventually we'll get a dehydrator. We'll need one, since we live in a climate too damp for air or sun drying. For now, however, it's low tech all the way. Once dry, I'll rub the parchment off the beans, then roast 'em, also in the oven since I don't have roaster. I predict I'll have enough for just a pot or two of coffee, but it's my coffee, gun funnit, so it's gotta be good. The Hawaii legislature has just overridden the governor's veto and passed a bunch of new taxes to soak tourists, smokers and rich people. Now I believe we should all pay taxes and better all those people than me. But this time, they've gone too far. These hikes won't affect me, unless you count the indirect effect of fewer tourists on the overall economy due to exorbitant lodging taxes. Tourism is the number one industry in Hawaii and has been sagging since 2007. People are strapped at best, unemployed at worst, and are tightening their belts. Those who might have come to Hawaii two years ago are opting instead for a cheaper destination. Hawaii costs a bundle. The governor wanted to do one-day/month furloughs of government workers, eliminate overtime or cut hours the way private companies and other local governments have done all across the country to save money. But the government workers here all belong to powerful labor unions, unions that control the state legislature - it's 90% democrats - and they are in no way willing to make concessions. This despite the concessions being made by organized labor all over the country. Of course, for many of them, like GM's UAW, it's concede or lose all the jobs when the plants close. Hawaii has more government workers per capita than any other state. I'm not philosophically opposed to labor unions. They have their place in certain segments of the economy and all employees should enjoy the right to organize if they feel compelled to do so. That said, I believe certain professions - namely teachers, nurses, airline pilots, college professors and other highly trained occupations - diminish their own professional value in a competitive marketplace by forming unions.
On the flip side, the governor wants to use federal money earmarked for education to bolster the state's general fund. Bad idea. The poor schools here are in dire straights, despite all the tax money flowing to them. School administration is top-heavy and there is only one school board for the entire state rather than smaller, independent districts. This makes for an inefficient, unwieldy, behemoth of a bureaucracy with no local control. The federal funds are (I think they are anyway) designated specifically for infrastructure and teachers, not administration, so despite the cumbersome nature of the public school system in Hawaii, would help tremendously.
Of course, these are just my opinions, which aren't worth a hill of beans, coffee or lima or kidney or navy or refried. Although when you think about it, a whole hill of beans could be worth quite a lot.
Speaking of beans, gotta go check on my soakers.
A hui hou. Aloha!
Comments