For the last three months I have found a renewed love for running. This has reduced some of my “free” time and hence I haven’t been painting quite as much. No worries, the brush and the canvas will return. I’ve been touching up many of my works from the past, brewing beer, roasting coffee and working on some projects that have languished for months.
I made four birdhouses out of reclaimed cedar/pecan and American Holy trees that fell during hurricane Fran. These were placed around the neighborhood. I haven’t noticed any birds nesting in them to date, however I am hopeful that they will be found; if not this year than next.
I have also been refining my green coffee roasting technique. I bought around 25lbs of green beans and have been using an air popper roaster to roast my green beans to perfection. I have been a coffee aficionado, thus it was only a matter of time before I decided to roast my own beans. The costs savings alone over a year are worth it. Green beans costs from 3-5 dollars a pound compared to the 14 dollars for 14oz that I was paying at my local store. The price at my local shop and the reduction in size from 16oz to 14oz is what prompted me to switch to roasting my own beans.
The instructions for roasting are simple. Take two heaping handfuls of beans and place them in the air popper. Depending on the type of bean and the roast desired roast from 6-10 minutes. Place a large bowl under the air popper exhaust to catch the chaff. Once roasted, place the beans on an oven pan to cool down. Repeat the above 4-5 times in order to roast a lb. I simply set the timer on my microwave and every few minutes head outside to switch the beans. The total process takes 30-40 minutes and you can multitask while you are doing it. It’s simple, and at the end you have fresh roasted, excellent beans. I’ve found that aged coffee’s do better at 1st crack around 6 minutes in the air popper. For an espresso roast I’ll stick to 9 minutes or so and for an Italian roast you’ll want 10 minutes.
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