KONA COFFEE
Uluwehi Coffee Farm in Hawaii
The coffee market is booming in most every part of the world. But, coffee beans can only be grown in certain parts of the world. It takes a farmer with a keen sense of agriculture to pull off growing the best beans.
Franck Carisey is one such up and coming grower that has the knack for growing coffee. In May 2022, he won 5th Overall and 2nd Place for his District in the Hawaii Coffee Association Cupping competition this past spring.
While it is very admirable to win such prestigious awards, the most impressive part is that Franck has only been in business since 2018.
A Frenchman, The Corporate Office & Coffee Beans
Franck was born in France. He traveled all over the world with his job in the electronic industry. He has been based in the US for about 20 years now and became a United States Citizen 10 years ago.
While still working and living in California, he and his wife bought the 5 acre parcel of land, Uluwehi Coffee Farm, located in the coveted Kona Coffee Belt in 2017. They planted 2400 trees in May of 2018. And in 2021, they made the giant move to their coffee farm.
Frank said that “it is quite a change from being in an office all day and traveling the world to now being outside on the farm all day. I really love it!”
Exponential Growth
There are several “pickings” where pickers harvest the coffee beans on a coffee farm each year. This is the 4th year of production for the coffee farm.
The first year, there wasn’t much. The second year, there was some volume, enough to share with friends and family. Last year, the third year, they were able to produce about half of their ultimate production goal. This year, has been very good so far.
Franck says that it will probably be a few more years before they meet their production goal, but they are getting a lot closer to that mark this year.
One does not just harvest coffee beans once and then be done until the next year. At the time of our interview, The Uluwehi Coffee Farm was in their 4th “pick”. They started picking coffee beans in June. Franck is expecting to have a pick every 3 weeks through January.
He says that farms in the higher elevations sometimes pick year round.
If well cared for, coffee trees can be quite productive. It is mind boggling to find all phases of the coffee bean life cycle (flowers, green cherries and red cherries) happening at the same time, all on the same branch. Yet this is why there is such a high yield and a need to pick often.
Pick, Pick Again, and Again, and Again...
Wake Up and Smell the Coffee...AND Fresh Eggs
Farmers typically add chickens to augment their farms. But, what if the chickens find you? Franck shared how earlier this year, chickens just seemed to appear on his farm for a couple of weeks. He doesn’t know if these chickens were wild as they tend to be on the island or they came from a neighbor. They were running all over the farm and started just laying eggs all over the farm. Well, they were not going to pass up this opportunity to have fresh egg omelets to compliment their specialty coffee. So, that’s what they did!
The chickens eventually moved on after a couple of weeks. But they and their cats were entertained by those strange big birds leaving behind gifts for breakfast.
"Being able to do something yourself and then having people enjoy the end product, is what I really like about it."-Franck Carisey
The Uluwehi Coffee Farm currently has a 5.0 review rating from it’s customers. One reviewer wrote: “Talk about a fantastic experience. I cannot remember when I have enjoyed learning about something so much. Everything from the planting of the trees to harvesting the beans to roasting the coffee was explained so beautifully and with such passion. So far this has been the highlight of my trip to Hawaii. The coffee is delicious and I will continue to order online when I return home to the mainland. This is not to be missed when you visit Kona!”
Franck is so pleased to host tours and serve a good cup of coffee that his customers enjoy. He has big plans to implement even more immersion experiences on his farm so that he can share his passion for coffee with his customers. He expressed that it is great joy to be a part of the entire process and see it through to production and sales. “Being able to do something yourself and then having people enjoy the end product, is what I really like about it.”
