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Pumehana's Coffee Farm was started in 1998. It is operated by Verna Dacalio and her family. It's a 5 minute drive above Pahala at an elevation of about 1,800 feet. Typica coffee is grown on the farm. Only ripe, red cherries are hand picked and harvested to ensure quality.
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Don Dacalio and Adolpho Pascubillo prune the old branches after the picking season and keep a couple of branches for the next season.
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Uncle Ciano helps with the pruning.
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Grandson Wayne Amps Nurial Dacalio checks the pulping shoot to see if it's empty. We pulp the cherries at the end of each picking day. That way we don't get sour beans.
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Grandson Morgan Nurial-Dacalio helps the coffee pulp go faster through the shaker. The good beans drop into the trough. The beans ferment between 12 to 18 hours, then washed and put on the racks to dry.
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The wet beans are put on the rack for 1 to 2 days just to get the water out of the beans. Every cracked bean or bad bean is hand picked and thrown away before moving it to the bigger dryer till it's done drying.
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Granddaughter Trystah Amps Nurial Dacalio rakes the dry beans or parchment. The parchment are bagged when the moisture in the beans reaches between 10.5% to 11.5% and not more than 12%.
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Trystah checks the moiture of the beans. She uses a Shore 920 Moisture Meter. You can buy one from Emmerich Grosch in Kona.
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The parchment are stored in a dry place on pallets. The bags are stacked criss-crossed so air can circulate between the bags and mold does not set in.
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