I just finished watching the garden show on TV they talked about the history of okra. Okra is used to make coffee is several areas of the USA and other countries. Africa is one of the largest growers of okra. There are about 75 to 100 seeds in each okra pot. Roast okra seed in your kitchen oven at your favorite roasting temperature then run the seeds through a coffee grinder. Okra seeds are roasted just like coffee beans.
Does anyone know you can make coffee from roasted okra seeds, has anyone tried it?
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HoneyBerry
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!potatoes!
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I have heard that it could be done, but I've never found myself with enough okra seed to experiment. I have made 'coffee' from some of the other old-fashioned 'alternatives' though - kentucky coffee tree seeds, persimmon seeds, and the mostly-shell/little bit of nutmeat crumbles after cracking a bunch of black walnuts...they're okay. the important thing seems to be to roast them dark - like well past what seems reasonable.
Good Heavens!
I thought that I had dabbled just enough into coffee alternatives to, at least, get my chin wet. You are talking about choices that I have never even considered!
Okra seeds, persimmon seeds, black walnuts, Kentucky coffee tree ... okay I have heard of that last one, think it was AppleStar's plant.
I was trying to limit caffeine without giving up coffee and I wasn't happy with the decafs that I tried, altho several years were spent grinding beans decaf/reg, 1/1. During this time, and I should get back to it this winter, I tried other alternatives.
I had drank roasted barley and chicory with coffee. I grew chicory and collected its relative dandelions and roasted/ground their roots. With coffee 1:1, not bad!
When I was a kid, not only did Mom use roasted barley but she had a roasted fig drink. I liked that! Found "Coffig" - it goes in the coffee maker with ground coffee about 2 coffee : 1 figs. Very good! The figs make the drink a little sweet but other than that, it tastes like coffee to me!
Reducing caffeine by half seems worthwhile. It's easier on my stomach. The last couple of years, I have just been drinking more tea, however, DW has recently been drinking more coffee. That means, it is more available to me!
During the gardening season, I am often looking for robust dandelions. The roots on puny plants are pencil thin and our recent dry summers have not encouraged much growth. I have grown escarole for several years. There may even be a few plants left in the backyard beds right now. I don't know what the frosts have done to this chicory relative but only an inch or so of soil has frozen, so far. Maybe I should check on those plants and see about chopping, roasting and grinding.
Someone stop me if I'm going astray!!
Escarole is a nice choice of a leafy green for the table. It would sure be easy to allow for cut-and-come-again harvesting of leaves while it is growing then, harvest the roots at the end of the season ...
Steve
I thought that I had dabbled just enough into coffee alternatives to, at least, get my chin wet. You are talking about choices that I have never even considered!
Okra seeds, persimmon seeds, black walnuts, Kentucky coffee tree ... okay I have heard of that last one, think it was AppleStar's plant.
I was trying to limit caffeine without giving up coffee and I wasn't happy with the decafs that I tried, altho several years were spent grinding beans decaf/reg, 1/1. During this time, and I should get back to it this winter, I tried other alternatives.
I had drank roasted barley and chicory with coffee. I grew chicory and collected its relative dandelions and roasted/ground their roots. With coffee 1:1, not bad!
When I was a kid, not only did Mom use roasted barley but she had a roasted fig drink. I liked that! Found "Coffig" - it goes in the coffee maker with ground coffee about 2 coffee : 1 figs. Very good! The figs make the drink a little sweet but other than that, it tastes like coffee to me!
Reducing caffeine by half seems worthwhile. It's easier on my stomach. The last couple of years, I have just been drinking more tea, however, DW has recently been drinking more coffee. That means, it is more available to me!
During the gardening season, I am often looking for robust dandelions. The roots on puny plants are pencil thin and our recent dry summers have not encouraged much growth. I have grown escarole for several years. There may even be a few plants left in the backyard beds right now. I don't know what the frosts have done to this chicory relative but only an inch or so of soil has frozen, so far. Maybe I should check on those plants and see about chopping, roasting and grinding.
Someone stop me if I'm going astray!!
Escarole is a nice choice of a leafy green for the table. It would sure be easy to allow for cut-and-come-again harvesting of leaves while it is growing then, harvest the roots at the end of the season ...
Steve
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Gary350
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During the great depression & World War 2 there was a coffee shortage & people did not have much money. My grand parents & parents grew up making coffee from barley & figs. When I was in grade school 1958 grocery stores sold many things in bulk, sugar, flour, grain, beans, rice, etc. 2 lbs of barley was 5 cents. When grandmother was baking bread she had 2 large cast iron skillets in the oven with 1/4 cup barley roasting in each skillet. She put the roasted barley in an empty can, when grand father had free time he used a hand crank coffee grinder to grind up the barley then put it in another can. Grand mother put the ground roasted barley in the old peculator coffee pot ever morning to make coffee. This was my mothers side of the family. My other grand mother & my father both made fig coffee. I was in 1st grade I did not pay attention to how fig coffee was made. Several years later they both were drinking real coffee. When my father got old and did not want to drink caffeine he started making fig coffee again. When he was in his 90s he drank instant decaf coffee.digitS' wrote: When I was a kid, not only did Mom use roasted barley but she had a roasted fig drink. I liked that! Found "Coffig" - it goes in the coffee maker with ground coffee about 2 coffee : 1 figs. Very good! The figs make the drink a little sweet but other than that, it tastes like coffee to me!
Steve
I have made coffee from barley that is already roasted you can buy it at the beer making store, it is called, crystal malt barley. L60 crystal malt is like light roast coffee, L90 is like medium roast coffee, L120 is like dark roast coffee, L150 is like extra dark roast coffee. 1 tablespoon per cup make good coffee. If you like strong coffee use 2 tablespoons per cup. If you don't live near a beer making supply store you can buy crystal malt on Ebay about 3 times more expensive.
MOTHER EARTH NEWS has good information about coffee.
There's no reason in the world to spend up to $5.00 a pound for ground roast coffee (or up to $10 a pound for instant) . . . when you can brew your own perfectly satisfying coffee substitute from inexpensive, readily available (not to mention wholesome and nutritious) cereal grains and vegetables. Yes, cereal grains and vegetables. Back in the 30's — when money (and coffee) was a good deal scarcer than it is now — many people couldn't afford to drink real coffee. Instead, they brewed a variety of mock javas from barley, rye, wheat, oats, flax and other common foodstuffs. And in some cases, the dark-brown beverages that resulted were said to have a significantly better flavor than real coffee.
Whether the mock Javas listed below are better — or worse — tasting than your favorite freeze-dried or ground roast coffee is something you'll have to decide for yourself. One thing is certain, however: Unless you do try one or more of the following concoctions, you'll never know bow satisfying coffee substitutes can be . . . and you'll never know how mach "coffee money" you might have been able to save!
Last edited by Gary350 on Fri Dec 14, 2018 2:34 pm, edited 2 times in total.
I hadn't thought of the roasted barley at beer stores. I'm not much interested in bitter beer. It's the flavor of malted barley that I like.
Of course, the alcohol makes me a little ... could I say, "lighter?"
I'm guessing that caffeine also lightens my day and it isn't just whatever weirdness is used to decaffeinate the beans that I find distasteful.
I can understand adding chicory and malted barley sounds okay. I didn't like the commercial drinks like Postum. I eat breakfast every day and often have hot cereal. Postum seemed like more of the same but they burned it a little ... maybe I should talk to the people at the beer store.
Steve
Of course, the alcohol makes me a little ... could I say, "lighter?"
I'm guessing that caffeine also lightens my day and it isn't just whatever weirdness is used to decaffeinate the beans that I find distasteful.
I can understand adding chicory and malted barley sounds okay. I didn't like the commercial drinks like Postum. I eat breakfast every day and often have hot cereal. Postum seemed like more of the same but they burned it a little ... maybe I should talk to the people at the beer store.
Steve
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!potatoes!
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tea is made from the leaf/leaf buds of the Camellia sinensis plant, but it's generally accepted to use the term for parts of other plants steeped in hot water. I think the way our language works will allow us to use the same rule for coffee, which is a part of a plant, frequently the seed, roasted, with the flavors drawn out with water (either boiling, percolating, whathaveyou).
mostly because it's easier than always having to refer to 'coffee-like liquids'
mostly because it's easier than always having to refer to 'coffee-like liquids'
Perhaps we can call it:
"tisane (tɪˈzæn) n (Cookery) an infusion of dried or fresh leaves or flowers, as camomile
[C19: from French, from Latin ptisana barley water; see ptisan]" Collins Dictionary
I don't learn to pronounce new words easily and don't think that I have ever called something a tisane.
Although neither flowers nor leaves, if it is "barley water," we have come nearly full circle.
Steve
"tisane (tɪˈzæn) n (Cookery) an infusion of dried or fresh leaves or flowers, as camomile
[C19: from French, from Latin ptisana barley water; see ptisan]" Collins Dictionary
I don't learn to pronounce new words easily and don't think that I have ever called something a tisane.
Although neither flowers nor leaves, if it is "barley water," we have come nearly full circle.
Steve
Chicory is a coffee substitute for people who want to reduce caffeine. Alternative coffee substitutes reminds me of habucha. American Japanese were relocated to internment camps during WWII, simply because they looked different and Americans were afraid they would be saboteurs. The United States, did not inter any German Americans. Grenada (Amache) was located in Colorado. The camp grew crops and raised animals to feed the camps and for something to do. The land was arid and they had to manufacture their own tools, but the farms were successful because they did have people who had farmed before. They did have to adapt to grow crops that were suitable for the environment. Habucha beans were grown as a substitute for tea and coffee since neither camelia or coffee trees would be able to grow there. The camp farms were productive enough that extra produce was shipped to other camps and some were sold in the local markets in nearby towns. It is also common to find today, that Japanese Americans born during the war years from 1941-1947 have American names and probably did not learn to read or write Japanese, because it was considered "un American". The 100th Infantry Battalion. 442nd Regimental Combat Team, 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, Military Intelligence Service were mostly volunteer Nisei Japanese American soldiers with non-Japanese commanders. It became the most decorated military unit in history during that time. The unit is part of the 25th infantry that is home based in Hawaii and is the only infantry formation in the army reserve. Most of them served in Italy and post war as interpreters. My Japanese teacher in high school, was chosen for the intelligence service. He said the test was simple. If you could write your name in Japanese, you were selected for military intelligence; sent to school to learn more Japanese and he said that his job was mostly as an interpreter during the post war period after the surrender of Japan.
My uncle had some habucha seeds, but I tried to grow them, but they were too old and none of them sprouted.
https://www.cwu.edu/geography/sites/cts ... amache.pdf
My uncle had some habucha seeds, but I tried to grow them, but they were too old and none of them sprouted.
https://www.cwu.edu/geography/sites/cts ... amache.pdf