Mike's Blog

My Coffee Cabinet

Once you have roasted your own, you will have embarked on the path few leave. After getting in the driver’s seat of your coffee experience, after having control over every aspect of the coffee, after experiencing just how good coffee can be, nothing on the store shelf can remotely compare, no matter how many artificial flavors they stuff in there. In short, you are transformed into a coffee snob. My journey began about ten years ago. And thanks to the internet. In my research – an act of self-improvement that my wife calls playing – I came across the home-roasting coffee possibility. And I came across Sweet Maria’s – a company owned and run by Tom that imports coffee after meticulously cupping each lot and determining it was of the quality he demanded. I was amazed at how easy roasting is – his website opened a whole new world of culinary possibilities. Each coffee from each region is distinctively different – I was essentially able to tour the world in my cup.

Read the rest of this entry »

The pallet just fit in the back of my Ranger.

Up until last year, I had no need for an extractor. Top-bar hives only require a knife, a bucket and a strainer. I still have tubs of honey-comb in the freezer that I take out once and a while to chew on some for a snack. I could probably leave the comb out now – I put it in the freezer to ensure that any wax-moth eggs are killed. However, for serious honey production, especially for a side-line honey business, an extractor is an essential tool for the job.

Read the rest of this entry »

This is the lava stone from which a poi pounder will be carved.

A poi pounder is a stone shaped somewhat like a half an hour-glass with a rounded bottom. It’s usually carved out of a gray lava with tight pores. In those days, these stones were pecked at with a hammer stone to shape it – a process that took many many patient hours. Once the shape was finished then another stone would be used to polish the pounder. I opted to use a diamond-bladed grinder instead.

Read the rest of this entry »

Toasted nanner trees. Guess I'm not getting bananas this summer.

My greenhouse is largely toast right now thanks to the Arctic blast that dropped temps way below normal. No other winter has affected the plants like this one – the earth-mass has performed marvelously in all the winters without extra heating. This time around, the earth-mass still performed well – I would have lost everything otherwise – but it wasn’t quite enough. Normally, the worst that happens is a few browned banana leaves on really cold nights. This time around is another story altogether – that Arctic blast was severe for this part of the country. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen it so devastated. I have had less damage in top-side greenhouses with failed heaters. I’ll only know what survived come Spring. It’ll be painful, tho, to haul out all the dead pots and try to catalog the losses. Many of these plants I’ve had for years and some are from seed.

Read the rest of this entry »