gardening surprise, supporting our habits

I received an email from Patrick(thank you Patrick) asking me about something on my profile. I grow my own coffee and tobacco. 2 bad habits I have, one I refuse to live without and the other I just don't want to quit. I looked thru my photo albums and don't have a single picture of either plant growing, hmmm. So, come spring I'll remedy that.

Coffee is an interesting subject! Lots of different strains of coffee you can grow, depending on your tastes. Myself, I prefer the Arabica bean for it's low acid and naturally smoother drinkability. Some types of Arabica plant prefer to be partially shaded, need extra care and attention but there's one or 2 strains out there that grow like weeds. A simple general search on coffee beans will help each person decide what type of plant they want to grow. The seed germination takes a bit longer than say a tomato seed, but once it gets going, you're in business! I started growing my own coffee a few years ago when the price of commercial coffee went way up and stayed up for a while. it's dropped back down somewhat now so stock piling a few cans of coffee while your plants get going is still affordable. It is a good idea to read up just a little on growing coffee before you start, all the help you can get.

Once you get your "cherries", there's a few decent and inexpensive ways to roast them too. You don't have to have an expensive electric roasting machine to get a good cup of coffee. I do mine in the oven. The roasted beans can be ground for brewing in just about anything, even a household blender. The best thing to use tho, is the old fashioned hand crank burr grinder. My preferred choice anyway.

I drink my coffee black but hubby likes sugar in his. Since I am allergic to bees, we don't have a supply of honey here so I grow Stevia. It helps but I don't think he considers it a good enough sugar replacement so we do have a stockpile of white sugar for his coffee.

Now for my other bad habit, tobacco! I've tried to quit just a couple times(thanks kids and the public school system) but I'm just not a quitter. I don't want to quit, I like my morning coffee and smoke. Tobacco is easy to grow, it will grow in just about any soil. The seed takes a little time to germinate but once it goes, you're in business! Think of the money you'd save to prep in other areas if you grew your own. You'll need a bit of space as the plants get big and you'll need somewhere to dry your plants. So, I suggest you read a bit on growing tobacco to become more familiar with the process as I cut corners here, throw up a drying shed at the last minute type thing and everyone will want to do what will work for them.

"Food for thought", if you smoke and drink coffee, your own supply isn't a bad idea!