November 2008, We get more serious about the website

With the stock market going up and down like a butter churn and many businesses and industries having flat or slower than expected cash flow from flat or slower sales, we had already been adjusting and working on our websites on and off for several months.

It happened thru mostly a fluke that we ran into a website we had been to probably three years or a bit more before which made mention of an offer for Kona Coffee which used to come from this very farm. An email inquiry or two and we find our web optimization and marketing now being carefully considered and greatly assisted by Scott Supak...

"ta da:"


Scott has some common interests with us, like organic practices and sustainable living. He has even been to the farm here -- what kind of deja vu or voodoo is that?

We want to welcome Scott and we appreciate his help that's for certain.

You can take a break from our adventures (but be sure to come back!) and surf for a long time just following Scott's wide range of threads and the various sites he is involved directly or indirectly in -- perhaps the easiest to start with is the site named with his last name at Supak.com.

August 2008_We add gift wrap to our coffee options

Ric actually loves to gift wrap. We used to have a retail store in St. Louis Missouri and two of our peak periods were Christmas and Valentines. We would have customers come back year after year for the special customized gift wrapping.

You can order most any of our coffee products with gift wrapping -- even the automatic monthly shipments!

Here are a few examples of his work with gift wrapping coffee bags!

April 16, 2008_We run an intranet ad at the St. Louis Police Department

This is the year we want to try to really start selling our coffee. So far, there has been a lot of stuff to do that did not leave much time left over for “extras” like promotions. A friend of ours from St. Louis gave us a ring and offered to put us on a private internet and so this advertisement was created to meet that need. It follows through with the theme from the brochure...

July and August 2007, Wet Mill is finished and another coffee picking season starts

Outside, we seem to be graced by some of the neighborhood peacocks!



July 2007_Wet Mill is done

Besides having a climate controlled room put into operation quite some time ago, we also now have a wet mill to take the pulper portion of the equipment (taking it off the sundeck).


August 2007_Picking season

We don’t get started as late as last year!

In December 2006, One highlight is attending a Kona Coffee Farmer's Seminar at a local organic kona coffee farm

December 2006_Our Climate Controlled Coffee Storage Room Project starts; Get our coffee logo completed!

12/11/06 Getting it into the final planning and design stages. It will involve some moving of soil, building the frame, determining
what type of dehumidifier or air conditioner or a combo unit will be used. How to monitor the humidity in the room, etc.


12/13/06, We attend a coffee workshop about drying methods. This is a coffee dryer!



12/13/06, Bob Nelson shows his custom made coffee rake! This is his farm we are at where the seminar is being held.
Bob has got the rake in his hand. Recognize the guy far back left? That’s Rick Funk again who a couple of months prior was pulping our coffee before our mill was ready to work. Rick has a similar dryer that he built so he had some input at the seminar.

September 2006, We get to process our own coffee beans to the parchment stage: "whoopie!" Yes, those are our coffee beans in the blue tub af

September 2006_Picking Season

We are a bit late getting started but there is plenty to pick. Much of our cherry is very nice size.

September 7th -- we get things we need, like a moisture meter, a scale, and a plastic shovel (like a snow shovel) that
works well on decks to scoop parchment.


Here Christine and Ken Sheppard get the hoops ready to go on top of the sun drying deck. The whoops will support the plastic that will cover over the deck to help it keep hot and also to protect the wood from getting excess exposure to water...

September 13th -- we take some of our coffee to Rick Funk to get it pulped while our deck gets to it’s finishing point. Rick was a neighbor right up the road from us and the first President (and a charter member) of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association.

August 2006, Our Sun drying deck to sun-dry the coffee beans is about ready as coffee picking season comes close

August 2006_Drying Deck is built and just about ready for service

Here is the very start of where the main structure of the mill will sit...