Looking at the Ideal Cacao Farm Through a Permaculture Lense.

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Lydia Hammond in Permaculture and Chocolate.

A man stands on his plantation holding pods of cacao in the coastal town of Choroni, Venezuela, By Michael Hanson, (Offset), http://www.offset.com/photos/39341

Our ideal cacao farm would likely be located in Ecuador in an area where a few of our plants are already occurring naturally. Ecuador has a multitude of volcanoes (26 total with a few of them extinct but most of them still active) and the cacao tree is native to South America. Coffee beans are also grown in Ecuador and help form an excellent shrub level for the cacao farm. Coffee bushes keep rain and wind from damaging the soil or smaller cacao trees so they’re worthwhile protection. The coffee plant grows to be 3-3.5 meters tall while the cacao tree grows 4 to 8 meters tall so they compliment each other nicely. Having two fruiting crops also allows the farmer a buffer of sorts if one crop fails. For additional wind/rain protection and sun shade we could use Cedela Odorata aka spanish cedar. The cedar tree grows to be 10-30 meters tall so it works nicely as a canopy to protect the delicate cacao trees from harsh sunlight. Cedela Odorata grows naturally in Ecuador and is also a very resilient low maintenance tree that is recommended as sun shade for cacao trees by the world cacao foundation. So with these three plants we’ve established a safe environment for the cacao trees that is made entirely out of locally growing plants. The nearby Ecuadorian volcanoes add the benefit of rich soils filled with volcanic minerals. As a result this cacao farm has entirely local plants, local volcanic soil, two fruiting plants that can be sold, protection from all the elements, and it’s located in a great cacao growing area near the equator. A small home for farmers located on site could be built using the cedar trees. Solar power and rain water collection along with composting would reduce the farms impact on the native land. Utilizing local farmers to work on the farm would bring prior knowledge and paying them a healthy livable wage would help stimulate their economy. When it comes to distribution, if you allow buyers to come to the farm to purchase then you risk their gas powered cars or planes harming the environment. Locating the farm near one of Ecuador’s many rivers and using rafts would provide a system of transporting the cacao to buyers that wouldn’t harm the land.

The Business of Taste

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Mr. Otto in Permaculture and Chocolate.

Chocolatier with a tray of cocoa beans, By Tim Pannell, (OffSet), http://www.offset.com/photos/78200

The taste of high-end chocolate is changing; chocolate is being marketed to showcase it’s terroir. The industry is pushing for more “bean-to-bar” and single-origin chocolates. By understanding not only the growing conditions, but the fermentation processes as well, chocolate makers are better able to highlight the natural flavors of regional cacaos. Small-scale chocolate makers are becoming more numerous in the United States and each are trying to find their place on the market.

In the recent past, many chocolate makers have used additives (nuts, berries, spices) to distinguish themselves. The current trend is now terroir. Chocolate is being produced simply, but with great technique in order to allow for a better taste of the purity of the bean. As with the trend in cuisine, simplicity and great ingredients are being put in the spotlight. By releasing place-specific, time-specific, bean-specific, limited edition chocolate bars, chocolate makers are able to sell at a premium and distribute a great product.

Featured talk: TCHO – Necessity is the mother of Chocolate Invention

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Alana M. in Permaculture and Chocolate.

TCHO Chocolate is a “New American Chocolate” company located in the San Francisco Bay Area in California.
Their chocolate is sourced from Peru, Ecuador, Madagascar and Ghana. To learn more about TCHO’s chocolate sourcing click here.

TCHO Chocolate became about due to an obsession with flavor, quality, innovation and sustainability.

As Brad explained, there are major disconnections within chocolate companies. These include geographic, socioeconomic, cultural (language, etc.), technical resources, and the information on what buyers want. Cacao quality hasn’t been focused on until recently.

“TCHO has brought the very same innovation and technology of our factory lab to our farmer partners, enabling them to make small batches of chocolate. (Surprisingly, most growers have never tasted chocolate made from their beans.) We work closely with our coop partners to provide the sensory training that enables them to understand the true driver in the value of their product: flavor.” (Taken from the website)

By having a communal language, this can help tastes become more fluent and similar, pinpointing what the company is directly looking for. This can be hard to teach and find the same language of experience though. A way to go about finding a common language and range for chocolate flavors, a system called “Cropster” was used. This is a current and ongoing database used where the sensory information is recorded among the tasters.

Special thanks to TCHO chocolate for contributing to the study of Terroir!

Some variables that influence chocolate:
-Origins in the Colombian basin in the early 1500’s, chocolate was discovered by the Spanish. This happened before coffee and tea. Yet the biggest home was found in West Africa, where about 70% of cacao was harvested from.
Cacao trees are pollinated by midge flies. There are also very few flowers that make it into pod production. Pods are very diverse and range in shape, size and color. Depending on the ripeness and pod variety, fruit of cacao will taste different.
The beans themselves though have about 600 flavor compounds.

Social/economic side of chocolate:
-Most cacao farmers don’t ever taste the cacao, and rarely the chocolate themselves. By providing education to the farmers, this can enhance quality productivity, and capacity rates.
For example, this can be done by improving infrastructure. When providing and installing fermentation and drying systems, this can keep the beans quality. This will then lead to the farmers making more money, because of the company’s willingness to pay for higher quality beans.

Terroir and quality of chocolate:
Temperature and pH can also influence the flavor of chocolate in fermentation systems.
The color of the beans is often due to the fermentation process.
Fermentation itself is tested by wiring systems to find the desired range for quality.
A sensory analysis is also an important part of the process to do- which checks for flavors of the chocolate by a variety of people. These tastings are often done by food scientists, by farmers as well.

Cacao Trees

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Alana M. in Permaculture and Chocolate.

By Michael Hanson, (Offset), http://www.offset.com/photos/39356

General knowledge:
-30-60ft tall trees, which are about 30ft around. They are plants susceptible to disease, and cannot be grown in full sunlight.

They are only grown in the tropics, 20 degrees above and below the equator. Any temperature below 56 degrees will kill the entire tree.

Harvest:
The cacao pods are heavy and football shaped, slightly bumpy and wrinkly. There are usually two harvests a year, one in October/November, and one in April/March. The pods grow are anywhere from 25-55 pods per tree, with about 500 blossoms. The pods strangely enough only grow on the main trunk, and branches.

40% of the crop is lost each year due to damage and insects. This means there is only about 60% yield, which is a very poor amount.

The pods attached to the placenta, centered in the cacao fruit pods, with a “corn on the cob” like structure.

Taste:
The fruit itself is a very light but very fruity flavor. Stringy and attached to a large pit- which is the cacao bean. The bean is oval shaped about an inch big, and is a rich deep purple color on the inside. Overall much more of a bean to fruit ratio.

History of Cacao

Posted on October 12, 2015 by rodtra24 in Permaculture and Chocolate.

The Latin name for Cacao – Theobroma Literally means “Food of the gods. This strange looking fruit that grows straight from the trunk of the Cacao tree played a very important roll in the history of Mesoamerican culture. The Cacao tree originates around the area we now know as Venezuela and some places Amazon River basin. The crop moved north with civilization into Central America, becoming a staple of civilizations such as the Mayans. Mesoamerican people would dry the bean of the cacao tree, roast it using clay vessels and then grind it with a stone and roller into a fine paste. They would then add herbs and sweeteners such as honey or sap before shaping the paste into a ball and letting it dry. Once the cacao ball dried they would shave it into a cup to make a hot frothy cacao beverage. This beverage was highly valued and drank at special events like weddings.

Geology and Chocolate

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Lydia Hammond in Permaculture and Chocolate.

The most basic element of terroir is the soil that food is grown in. The soils chemical composition lends itself to how the plant grows and what it tastes like. Everything about the dirt can impact the plants growing in it including soil quality, moisture levels, mineral/rock composition, levels of organic matter in the soil, and so much more. When it comes to cacao most of it is grown twenty degrees north or south of the equator and the soil quality tends to blacking. As a result cacao tends to grow best around areas with volcanic activity, the minerals in magma cool and get weathered and provide a fresh source of nutrients for nearby soils. Particles can be carried with wind or rain to the soil plots being farmed from there acids from biota break down nutrients in the soils and they mix with groundwater to get absorbed by the cacao plants. Through this process, cacao farming is possible within its equatorial boundaries with the oxisol soils available there.

Women in Chocolate: Gillian Goddard

Posted on October 8, 2015 by thrjah27 in Permaculture and Chocolate.

At the Women in Chocolate Panel there were many women with fascinating stories, but one woman in particular stood out the most. Gillian Goddard is a Trinidadian chocolatier and founder of Sun Eaters Organics. Unlike her fellow panel mates, Goddard did not start her company because she is a fan of chocolate, but because it is a tool of activism against colonization in Trinidad. According to Goddard, when the Spanish came to Trinidad in 18th century, they could not cultivate the indigenous cacao well, so they sold the land to the French. Once the French got a hold of Trinidad, they set up thousands of efficient growing cacao fields, opening the gateway for French colonization. Goddard’s definition of colonialism is “when a community can no loner satisfy its needs from its own ecosystem”. Today, 90% of food in Trinidad is exported; and many crops are exported out of the country to be processed elsewhere and then re-imported back into the country. The goal of Sun Eaters Organics is to increase the production and distribution of locally grown products and minimize dependency from outside sources. Most of the money that Goddard receives for her company is from non-government organizations. Although Goddard’s goal is good-natured, she still faces many difficulties being a female farmer (disrespect and arrogance from male farmers, unwillingness to share resources, etc.). At the moment, the world of chocolate is very defined, men work with machines and culinary techniques while women work with cashiers and customers, but there are female chocolatiers like Gillian Goddard are changing this one bar at a time.