Saw dust as in woody flavors? i had a few stalled roasts that tasted woody....I now have fresh greens and some leftover greens now a year old (stored inside not frozen but kept in plastic) and the one year old beans still come out nice when roasted properly. Could it be the roast?

Ryan, excellent topic. I am VERY diligent about asking where it's not only current crop, but if it's an early part of the harvesting, or later. In Brazil, for instance, some farms actually process their coffees differently at certain times of the year (DP versus Pulped natural, etc)
Noticed several reputable bean retailers describe UP FRONT the harvest dates. I've seen several that were a previous year's harvest...at THIS year's prices.

Buyers need to be diligent, observant.

IMAWriter wrote:I've seen several that were a previous year's harvest...at THIS year's prices.

Buyers need to be diligent, observant.

This reminds me of a conversation that took place a couple of years ago. A retired roaster told us that the company he used to roast for bought from time to time old green beans in order to get it cheaper (beans that were sold as old). He claimed that it's not that uncommon policy in larger roasting factories who think mainly of their shareholders' interests. (It's quite possible/likely that the beans they buy are mostly crap anyway.)

Obviously no speciality coffee roaster is likely do that (unless they're already planning to get out of business soon). But the conversation just popped into my mind while reading this thread.

Royal Coffee has a good piece that sheds some light on factors impacting the quality of past crop coffee (link below). If my memory serves me correctly a lot of how a coffee ages depends upon storage (as has already been mentioned) and also upon how it's been processed at origin. For instance, a coffee with higher moisture content and water activity will tend to degrade more quickly over time than a coffee dried to a lower moisture content and with more of the water bound up in the bean structure.

Green Coffee Analytics: Relevance to Roasters, Buyers, and Producers - Part I: Moisture Content and Total Water Activity

And this article from Jen Apodaca may also be of interest:
Past Crop Coffees Part 1: Roasting

I wonder why roasters who disclose the harvest time don't specify the year!? Ive seen Nov - Dec, or Jan - Mar for instance.

But who knows of what year it was?

I learned something interesting watching this today (wish I had watched it before)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoCmAtk4lCI

At about 9 minute mark he talks about how they vacuum pack and freeze their greens. I was wondering why the GH website had coffees with such old harvests! It was contradicting what I thought I was learning.....

My next order may just have to be GH.