Ranchi: The Minz family in Bandhu Nagar, Birsa Chowk, brews home-grown coffee. And, once you have a mug, you are sure to ask for their coffee story, and if interested enough, a sapling.

Francis Lucas Minz, a State Bank of India official in Ranchi and his wife Rita, Oli George Lucas Minz, programme announcer in All India Radio, Ranchi, and his wife Mukta, and Leoline, the youngest sibling of Francis and Oli, are the ardent coffee growers.

At the Minz house, each plant yields around 5-6 kg of coffee a year, which equals around 3kg coffee powder. “We’ve never bought coffee from the market,” smiled Mukta.

Oli, whose wife, sister and sister-in-law give utmost time in looking after the coffee garden at home, said: “My mother Roseline, who is no more, was very fond of gardening. My dad Eric Lucas Minz, a farmer in Bhonda village in Murhu block, Khunti, encouraged her. We siblings have grown up amid a sprawling garden. One of our brothers is settled in Washington, another elder sister is associated with St Anne’s School in Ranchi, but when we all come together, ask us, we swear by the taste of home-grown coffee.”

In fact, their mother said a beautiful thing to them, Oli said. “Our mother asked the family to stay together in spirit always, with the family garden as its heart.” So when Francis and Oli made a home at Bandhu Nagar, they kept space for a garden and even brought their parents there in 2001.

Roseline brought coffee saplings and planted them in the garden. “After she passed away in 2008, the coffee plants are her living memory. When we enjoy a cup of home-made, freshly brewed coffee, it is as if she is among us,” said the son.

Coffee plants are also something Leoline, who is deaf and mute, loves to tend to. “We make over 250 saplings every year and distribute to our friends, something Leoline is very keen on,” said Oli.

Any tips for coffee growers? Rita swears by balanced watering. “Not too much so as to cause water-logging that makes the roots rotten. Not too little so as to make the soil dry. You need to get a hang of it.”

Fruition in coffee trees starts in three to four years. Explaining how they make coffee powder, Rita said: “We pluck red ripe fruit from the plant and peel away the upper layer to reveal a creamy covering. When we remove that, coffee beans come out. These are dry-roasted and ground to make fine powder.”

Is the work laborious? When you sip home-grown coffee, the fresh aroma takes away all the pains of labor,” the two sisters-in-law chimed in unison.

They go so far as to ask local farmers to consider commercial coffee cultivation. “The soil and weather here in Ranchi are good for coffee cultivation. Coffee, as you know, is an up-market product. Local farmers may get good returns. Also, cows and goats don’t graze it. All it needs is careful watering,” said Mukta.

And for people like us, Oli has a piece of advice. “Next time, when you pick a pricey coffee jar from a supermarket, think of growing a plant at home!”

(This appeared in The Telegraph of Kolkata on March 22, 2013)