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April Update

  It's been awhile since I've posted.  Justin's situation is hard to write about, but I know there are people who want to know what's going on with Justin, my son.  In truth, he is getting sicker and weaker.  For awhile,he made great progress, talking, eating, and getting back into his power wheelchair.   Then he started getting weaker.  His left lung became covered with secretions, and he needed surgery to scrape things out. Then a CT scan revealed more new spine fractures (total of 7).  After that, he just hasn't been able to get over the hump.  This week, Justin decided to discontinue the weaning from the ventilator.  He is on full breath support and can no longer use the voice valve to talk without dangerous oxygen drops.  Pain medication has been significantly increased to help him deal with the pain. It's a tough thing for a 23-year-old to confront one's mortality.  We will continue this journey with Justin to the end to the best of our abilities.  We
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Flying Chaff

Another rainy, cold day.  The area trails were too muddy to be fun, so I walked again into Lodi and then back home again. The ground is still frozen so the water runs off the hills and collects in the ditches.  Just a little bit of snow left, and it isn't pretty.



I ran out of coffee this morning, so coffee roasting was on today's to-do list.  

 


In the commercial roastery, most of the chaff goes up from the roasting drum and through the chimney.  A small amount of chaff enters the air when the beans discharge into the cooling tray.  It's a relatively small amount of chaff because my commercial loads were 20 lbs of beans while my home roasting loads are only a pound.

Roasting in the bread machine is an open-air process, so when the chaff releases from the beans, it all tends to fly into the air. 


Roasting green coffee with a bread machine is as easy as it looks.  The chaff is fully released after about five minutes, more or less.  The beans turn a cinnamon color as they reach what's known as first crack, an audible sound similar to popcorn popping.  Most of my roasts stop just before second crack.  Roasting takes about fifteen minutes and then another four minutes for the beans to completely cool.

High Tech cooling tray
 

Dark roasts are usually taken to after second crack, which sounds like Rice Crispies and milk.  Coffee taken to French Roast is black and oily.  

At my coffee shop, the French Roast was called the BBB Special Blend.  It stood for badly burnt beans.  We still sold a lot of it.  People like what they like.

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MFH said…
Interesting. How many roastings can you get from each bread machine?

How is everyone?

Will you be oot and aboot this summer?
March 24, 2022 at 10:20 AM
John said…
I'm still on the first bread machine. It's well over ten years old. During roasting, the bread machine operates only on the "dough" setting, so the heating element never turns on. The heat gun takes a beating from the dirty environment/chaff and usually lasts about two years. I roast once per week so that is around 100 roasting cycles per heat gun. The heat guns are about $40. Contrast that with a commercial one pound roaster. https://coffeetec.com/products/san-franciscan-sample-profile-1lb-roaster

Everyone is good. Julia is enjoying retirement without regrets. Allie got a promotion to media planner and now has an assistant instead of being an assistant. She also upgraded her apartment and loves living in The City. Justin is still in school (an accomplishment) and doing it his way. He doesn't come home very often anymore, but he will be here for the weekend.

We will probably stick closer to home this summer. Gas prices are a deterrent, and Julia has already blown our travel budget for the year with a big bucket list trip to Machu Picchu planned for late fall. We are going to hike the Inca Trail, and she is going to spend some time in Cusco with fellow weavers.

March 24, 2022 at 6:24 PM
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