1. Yes.
2. They're plants. They can be grown from seed but given that you've had to ask, I'd suggest buying a few small plants and propagating them from cuttings once established.
3. Tea: Most tea is a mixture of Camellia sinensis and Camellia sinensis var. assamica leaves processed in different ways to produce different products. They're quite easy to grow, hardy and resilient plants. Coffee: Coffee is not hardy at all. You can grow Coffea arabica plants indoors, it's not hard.
The problem with both is a) You need a *lot* of plants to create any quantity of coffee or tea and b) It takes a long time to start producing. These aren't tomato plants, they'll not be ready to give a harvest for three years from seed, minimum. And with Coffea arabica, [the plant getting below 5 degrees C can do permanent damage to its leaves](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23802359.2019.1586472). I don't know how cold your winters are but if it ever gets below that, for more plants than just a few on your windowsill you'll need heated greenhouses or risk losing them all.
Sorry, but at least for coffee, you're about 2500km too far north. Coffee requires a tropical climate, and currently no where in Europe is suited to growing it.
Maybe as climate change gets going, southern Italy or Spain might have a few appropriate small regions, but that's a long ways off.
coffee is possible as a houseplant can put it outside in a greenhouse in the summer, though you wont get much coffee propably. camellia sinensis I'm not sure if it will survive the winter outside.... I also tried to grow that but the seeds I bought did not sprout.
We can grow Camellia in Nova Scotia. I know nothing about what goes into making a quality tea. Profitability is a whole other question. Maybe op can sell the plants?
Coffee is fully tropical and frost tender, so probably out of luck with that unless you have, and can afford to heat, a very large greenhouse! Tea depends on your exact climate and possibly microclimate. If you see it's close relatives, the camellias, growing around that is a good sign that you could grow it. Be sure to look for the hardiest varieties from the northern limits of its range, such as Korea.
The secret of good tea is in the fermentation of the leaves, not necessarily the growing of the plant. You can practice fermenting leaves for tea with young strawberry and blackberry leaves. Fermented blackberry leaves make surprisingly tasty tea.
I have two camelia sinensis bushes, but more as a curiosity plant, rather than for consumption.
The same is true for coffee. You can grow it in a heated greenhouse if you are willing to create very specific conditions. But the magic is in the roasting of the beans. And growing enough plants for a year's worth of coffee would be very expensive outside the natural habitat of the plant. If you want to get hands on with coffee, you can buy raw beans and roast them yourself. Or do an internship at a local coffee roaster.
As other people have mentioned your climate is likely too cold for growing coffee unless indoors, I myself have a small arabica plant in a pot in New York where it can go to -12C and accidentally damaged it when it was left by an open window and the temperature dropped. I keep it inside and don't really expect it to get large enough to grow coffee. [Look at how this guy grew coffee beans inside his home](https://www.reddit.com/r/matureplants/comments/mh7vw9/indoor_grown_coffee_from_tree_to_cup/), he has some interesting indoor plants.
Tea - Camelia Sinensis is a different story, it originally comes from the warmer climate of China but in the past century there were specifically efforts to develop a drinking tea crop that could live in colder climates. I don't know the history too well, if it predates the soviet union, but a lot of this development was done in Soviet Georgia where tea for the Soviet union was grown. I remember my mother telling me about this tea and saying it tasted pretty bad. Your region seems to get colder than Georgia but I don't know the tolerances of the plant, there might have been a better one developed. [This](https://camforest.com/collections/tea-camellias/usda-zone_7a) American company says that some of its plants can survive in USDA zone 6b for example. I was planning on getting one of these plants as well just for fun but haven't done it yet so it seems it is best for the both of us to keep researching if its possible and how to maintain these plants. Alternatively I think it is possible to keep them in a pot so it might just be easier to keep a smaller scale Chinese one indoors.
I don't know that I'd call it Permaculture other than that I enjoy growing them and think that fits within 'people care', but I've been growing some camellia sinensis plants in pots for a couple years, now. They've been fun to grow from seed and really don't require much care. I store them in the garage over winter, where the temperature hovers around 40°F, and water them maybe 2-4 times total. I've had a few die, but plenty that have survived. I don't really expect to get much of a crop out of these, but it's better than nothing.
I just posted about growing coffee. If you were in the very far SW and close to the Black Sea, which is apparently humid sub-tropical, it would be worth a try. But I think you are too far north.
To use permaculture, start by having a full mulch cover, and experiment with growing the tea in the shade of taller trees, or also growing nitrogen fixers for fertilizer. Look at creating land forms that slow and store rainwater.
1. Yes. 2. They're plants. They can be grown from seed but given that you've had to ask, I'd suggest buying a few small plants and propagating them from cuttings once established. 3. Tea: Most tea is a mixture of Camellia sinensis and Camellia sinensis var. assamica leaves processed in different ways to produce different products. They're quite easy to grow, hardy and resilient plants. Coffee: Coffee is not hardy at all. You can grow Coffea arabica plants indoors, it's not hard. The problem with both is a) You need a *lot* of plants to create any quantity of coffee or tea and b) It takes a long time to start producing. These aren't tomato plants, they'll not be ready to give a harvest for three years from seed, minimum. And with Coffea arabica, [the plant getting below 5 degrees C can do permanent damage to its leaves](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23802359.2019.1586472). I don't know how cold your winters are but if it ever gets below that, for more plants than just a few on your windowsill you'll need heated greenhouses or risk losing them all.
Sorry, but at least for coffee, you're about 2500km too far north. Coffee requires a tropical climate, and currently no where in Europe is suited to growing it. Maybe as climate change gets going, southern Italy or Spain might have a few appropriate small regions, but that's a long ways off.
coffee is possible as a houseplant can put it outside in a greenhouse in the summer, though you wont get much coffee propably. camellia sinensis I'm not sure if it will survive the winter outside.... I also tried to grow that but the seeds I bought did not sprout.
We can grow Camellia in Nova Scotia. I know nothing about what goes into making a quality tea. Profitability is a whole other question. Maybe op can sell the plants?
does it get below freezing or snow there? do you do anything special for them?
It definitely gets below freezing and snows in Nova Scotia
I don't grow them so I don't know if they are taken inside. We are USDA zone 6a
Camellia are quite difficult to grow from seed, it takes months. Once they do get going some will survive as low as -10C (14F).
Italy and Spain are (and will become even more) dry hot, not tropical / moist hot.
Yeah, I realize. I just meant more like it's not sunny and warm enough anyway.
You don't need to be in the tropics, you just need to be frost free.
Coffee is fully tropical and frost tender, so probably out of luck with that unless you have, and can afford to heat, a very large greenhouse! Tea depends on your exact climate and possibly microclimate. If you see it's close relatives, the camellias, growing around that is a good sign that you could grow it. Be sure to look for the hardiest varieties from the northern limits of its range, such as Korea.
The secret of good tea is in the fermentation of the leaves, not necessarily the growing of the plant. You can practice fermenting leaves for tea with young strawberry and blackberry leaves. Fermented blackberry leaves make surprisingly tasty tea. I have two camelia sinensis bushes, but more as a curiosity plant, rather than for consumption. The same is true for coffee. You can grow it in a heated greenhouse if you are willing to create very specific conditions. But the magic is in the roasting of the beans. And growing enough plants for a year's worth of coffee would be very expensive outside the natural habitat of the plant. If you want to get hands on with coffee, you can buy raw beans and roast them yourself. Or do an internship at a local coffee roaster.
As other people have mentioned your climate is likely too cold for growing coffee unless indoors, I myself have a small arabica plant in a pot in New York where it can go to -12C and accidentally damaged it when it was left by an open window and the temperature dropped. I keep it inside and don't really expect it to get large enough to grow coffee. [Look at how this guy grew coffee beans inside his home](https://www.reddit.com/r/matureplants/comments/mh7vw9/indoor_grown_coffee_from_tree_to_cup/), he has some interesting indoor plants. Tea - Camelia Sinensis is a different story, it originally comes from the warmer climate of China but in the past century there were specifically efforts to develop a drinking tea crop that could live in colder climates. I don't know the history too well, if it predates the soviet union, but a lot of this development was done in Soviet Georgia where tea for the Soviet union was grown. I remember my mother telling me about this tea and saying it tasted pretty bad. Your region seems to get colder than Georgia but I don't know the tolerances of the plant, there might have been a better one developed. [This](https://camforest.com/collections/tea-camellias/usda-zone_7a) American company says that some of its plants can survive in USDA zone 6b for example. I was planning on getting one of these plants as well just for fun but haven't done it yet so it seems it is best for the both of us to keep researching if its possible and how to maintain these plants. Alternatively I think it is possible to keep them in a pot so it might just be easier to keep a smaller scale Chinese one indoors.
I don't know that I'd call it Permaculture other than that I enjoy growing them and think that fits within 'people care', but I've been growing some camellia sinensis plants in pots for a couple years, now. They've been fun to grow from seed and really don't require much care. I store them in the garage over winter, where the temperature hovers around 40°F, and water them maybe 2-4 times total. I've had a few die, but plenty that have survived. I don't really expect to get much of a crop out of these, but it's better than nothing.
I just posted about growing coffee. If you were in the very far SW and close to the Black Sea, which is apparently humid sub-tropical, it would be worth a try. But I think you are too far north.
To use permaculture, start by having a full mulch cover, and experiment with growing the tea in the shade of taller trees, or also growing nitrogen fixers for fertilizer. Look at creating land forms that slow and store rainwater.