Saturday 11 January 2014

HOW TO HARVEST COCOA BEANS

HOW TO HARVEST COCOA BEANS


http://howto361.blogspot.com/2014/01/how-to-harvest-cocoa-beans-pods.htmlPods containing cocoa beans augment from the trunk and branches of the cocoa tree. Harvesting engages removing ripe pods from the trees and opening them to extract the wet beans. The pods are gathered manually by making a clean cut through the stalk with a well honed cutting-edge. For pods high on the tree, a pruning snare kind of tool can be utilised, with a handle on the end of a long beam. By impelling or pulling according to the place of the crop, the top and smaller cutting-edges of the tool enable the stalk to be slash cleanly without damaging the branch that bears it.



The pods are opened to eliminate the beans inside a week to 10 days after harvesting. In general, the gathered pods are grouped simultaneously and divide either in or at the brim of the plantation. occasionally the pods are conveyed to a fermentary before splitting. If the pods are opened in the planting localities, the discarded husks can be distributed all through the fields to return nutrients to the soil.

The best way of unfastening the pods is to use a timber club which, if it strikes the centered locality of the pod, causes it to split into two equal half; it is then easy to eliminate the damp beans by hand. A chopping device, such as a machete, is often used to divide the pod, though this can damage the beans. Some mechanism has been developed for pod opening, but smallholders in general convey out the process manually. After extraction from the pod, the beans undergo a fermentation and drying method before being bagged for delivery.

Fermentation

Fermentation can be carried out in a kind of ways, but all procedures count on eliminating the beans from the pods and piling them simultaneously or in a box to allow micro-organisms to develop and start the fermentation of the pulp surrounding the beans. The stacks are enclosed by banana departs.

The fermentation process starts with the growth of micro-organisms. In particular, yeasts augment on the pulp surrounding the beans. bugs, such as the Drosophila melanogaster or vinegar-fly, are likely to blame for the move of micro-organisms to the heaps of beans. The yeasts convert the sugars in the pulp surrounding the beans to ethanol. Bacteria then start to oxidise the ethanol to acetic unpleasant and then to carbon dioxide and water, producing more heat and lifting the temperature. The pulp begins to break down and drain away throughout the second day. In anaerobic conditions, the alcoholic beverageic beverage converts to lactic acid but, as the acetic unpleasant more actively oxidises the alcoholic beverage to acetic unpleasant, conditions become more aerobic and stop the activity of lactic unpleasant. The warmth is increased to 40ºC - 45ºC throughout the first 48 hours of fermentation. In the remaining days, bacterial undertaking extends under expanding aeration conditions, as the pulp drains away and the warmth is sustained. The process of turning or mixing the beans increases aeration and consequently bacterial undertaking. The acetic unpleasant and high temperatures murder the cocoa bean by the second day. The death of the bean determinants cell partitions to shatter down and previously segregated compounds to mix. This permits convoluted chemical alterations to take location in the bean such as enzyme undertaking, oxidation and the breakdown of proteins into amino acids. These chemical reactions origin the sweets flavour and colour to evolve. The length of fermentation varies counting on the bean kind, Forastero beans require about 5 days and Criollo beans 2-3 days.

Cocoa beans are dehydrated after fermentation in alignment to reduce the moisture content from about 60% to about 7.5%. Drying must be conveyed out carefully to ensure that off-flavorous are not evolved. Drying should take location gradually. If the beans are dehydrated too rapidly some of the chemical reactions begun in the fermentation method are not allowed to complete their work and the beans are acidic, with a bitter flavour. However, if the drying is too slow, moulds and off flavours can evolve. diverse study investigations indicate that bean temperatures during drying should not exceed 65ºC.

There are two methods for drying beans - sun drying and artificial drying.

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