My good friend Robin lives on a teeny tiny lake, in a teeny tiny town in a teeny tiny house. She is the original pioneer woman (as another friend pointed out one day as she was spinning her own wool on my front porch). She really is quite amazing. She roasts her own coffee, makes her own soap from goats milk, bakes her own bread, makes her own hard cider, fruit preserves, dries her own tomatoes, and now, raises her own chickens. Twenty four hours at her house is an exercise in sensory stimulation and a lot of education. I learned that each of her 6 Golden Comet chickens will lay one egg a day for about 3 years--giving her an ample supply of omeletes. But probably the coolest thing I learned was how to roast coffee beans. I used to think folks who roasted their own beans were a little crazy. It just seemed like a lot of work. But it's actually not.
Robin buys her beans in bulk on-line from sweetmarias.com. Unroasted beans cost about $6/pound. She roasts them in an inexpensive coffee roaster that she got a Target, that looks a lot like a standard coffee grinder--it's about the same size. It took her about 7 minutes to roast our beans to a nutty brown, with a flavor so good, that I actually ate a few beans whole by themselves. She brewed us cups in her standard drip coffee maker for delicious, smooth cups of coffee. But the best was the espresso she made in her little bialetti stove top espresso pot--which costs about 20$ at a Italian cookware store. It works the reverse of a drip maker--heating up the water and sending it up through the coffee grounds. It's adorable, doesn't take up counter space, and simple--something I will definitely get.
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