DIY COFFEE: Homegrown homeroasted... Single bean style.

Working to prepare for the apocalypse... which ever is currently in vogue. I think meteors currently. To that effect here is how I grew, roasted and brewed my own coffee. All be it on a small scale. Do you like small scale brewing? Check out my growing and brewing my own beer.

Coffee flowers on my Arabica plant. These are the first ones and the plant is now 7 years old.

The first coffee bean.... so pretty. Once it was somewhat soft to the touch I put it in a mesh bag (the kind fruit comes in) and left it hang in the LA sun for a few hot days.

This is what it looks like dried.

 I then peel the bean with my fingers.

The coffee beans then go into the Air Popper until they are a nice light roast.

 Roasted!

 Grinding. Would be lost if I put it in the regular grinder.

Don't forget to pre-heat the morter and pessel. Yum!... sort of. Tasted a little bit like light coffee peanut butter.

beak of the squid

all that is left of a tasty dinner.

Greatest Depictions of Cactus in Art: Matisse, Morandi, O'Keefe

Art depicting cacti by the greatest artists. Please suggest additions.

1) Matisse Patterns in The Rosaire Chapel - Ville de Vence.

Opuntia inspired patterns are common in Matisse's work. This piece is stained glass in the Rosaire Chapel a chapel designed for Dominican nuns by Matisse. The image below is a screen shot from an interesting documentary about the Chapel and a nun who worked with and modeled for Matisse.

A screen shot from: A Model for Matisse

2) Giorgio Morandi's Cactus Painting. 

Italian still life painter whose cactus painting is an oddity among mostly vases bottles and bowels. The book sadly gives no genus nor species for this plant but perhaps a Parodia magnifica? Pachycereus pringlei? I would love to hear your suggestions.
 
Giorgio Morandi 1890-1964: Nothing Is More Abstract Than Reality

 3) Georgia O'Keefe- Yellow Cactus 

Another Opuntia.