Off to a Chocolate Farm
AJAYA'S CRUISE
Phil & Nikki Hoskins
Mon 18 Jun 2012 00:39
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A chocolate farm? Why not - we love the stuff! Bet you
didn't know they farmed chocolate in Panama. (Remember Mums when we plagued
you for that bar of Frys Five Boys or Cadburys Dairy Milk and the answer came
back - it doesn't grow on trees you know - come to think of it was that
the money to pay for it you were referring to?) Well, yes it does, the
chocolate that is, although to look at it you would not associate the
raw product with anything that ends up in a cardboard box with colourful
wrappings.
This whole area used to be a huge chocolate producer but
then a blight came, wiped out the crop and the indigenous Indians bought a load
of cows with funny looking ears instead. Now some enterprising ex pats
from the USA have set up a small farm at their home in the Bocas area where
they harvest, ferment, dry, roast and sell their beans into the local
economy. And they welcome visitors to tour the estate for a modest fee which to
be honest is a bargain.
We visited Green Acres with cruising friends. The tour
was not just about the owners Cacao cash crop but included a 2 hour walk
through their 55 acre site which had formerly been used for grazing cattle
(with the funny ears). Most of the land has been allowed to
revert back into jungle, which happens in an amazingly short space of
time whilst incorporating the Cacao trees that the chocolate
bean comes from. Fortunately, we were rewarded with a bright sunny day
for the tour. At the end we bought some 'nibs' which are the chocolate beans
that have been crushed ready for use.
One common misconception many of us have is that we think
chocolate is naturally sweet. Well, that's incorrect. It's very bitter
when in the pod but after fermentation much of the bitterness goes. Only when it
is further refined and has milk and sugar added by Messes Hershey, Cadburys,
Mars or that company that used to make those ghastly cheap fake pipe
chocolates our Grans bought us for Christmas does it become the sweet
we know. In the state it is in on the farm there is no sweetness but it's full
of goodness being excellent food for a healthy heart and metabolism. It was
the naughty British that first added sugar to make it what we are all familiar
with and thus making it into such a fattening food.
  View from the seaward where,
incidentally, we narrowly avoided a reef on final
approach! And the view to across the lagoon through
the Skippers thatch
  The area near the house is beautifully
landscaped
  ..and incorporates one completely mad resident
mutt and a nest of hummingbirds (which measured about 2" across - one good
sneeze and it would have been gone))
  Now to the chocolate .......... these are the pods
that contain the beans that are covered by a white pithy
substance..............
  We actually ate some of those (monkeys eat
them as
well) After
fermentation are left to dry in the sun
   The owner has some interesting pieces of
apparatus including this propane bottle roaster and this home-made grinder
- producing the finished nibs
 
 The old husks make excellent
mulch.... ....
whereas we will enjoy the finished product at our
leisure
The remainder of the tour took us through the
jungly part with the usual array of
critters .......
  We all look down as we walk! Any dangerous
stuff is often at ground level.
.....
this little fella was, we're sure, glued to the tree
  The jungle has a natural beauty of its
own
Here are the green froggies we mentioned in the last
blog.......An interesting fact - you can find out if a frog is poisonous by
touching it with your tongue. If it tastes bitter then it's best not eaten
-even the legs! Good luck with that
test!
   Just an inch or so long - So cute! (Prefer
the red ones though).
One final point - like all of the properties away
from Bocas Town power is by way of solar panels
- large banks of them usually sited on the roof. All water is by way of
rainfall and held in huge plastic drums in basements or adjoining buildings. All
of the chocolate produced is processed using these natural
resources making it a very 'green' food!
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