FARM TO PRODUCT 😄 No Willy Wonka in sight, sadly... 🤣
I lived in Vietnam for just under 5 years and one of my favourite foods/ drinks to consume and grow while I was there was cacao. The picture above is of a pile of ripe cacao fruit (Yes it also has a fruit, have you tasted it? It's super delicious but also super perishable so has to be eaten swiftly. Another reason to grow your own tree- for sure!).
This picture was taken at a chocolate factory in the Mekong Delta region, where there are plenty of cacao trees. All of them are organic - no chemicals necessary and I noticed that any of the trees were planted on berms to avoid the roots getting too soggy when the Delta floods. The whole process was explained to us, from cultivation, through harvesting, drying out, and then preparing to make chocolate and chocolate products. I was literally in Cacao heaven and I learned so much.
This picture below is the chocolate product coming out of the machine. It was super tasty for sure.
Before the process can begin, however, the cacao seeds have to be dried and fermented in the sun. These pictures were taken to show how it's done. It really was fascinating! The process is all done by hand right next to the orchard full of cacao fruits. If you happen to visit southern Vietnam and are looking for some eco education and some yummy chocolate samples, headv down to Kimmy's Chocolate Factory . You won't be dissapointed, I promise. You can see the whole operation and talk to the staff about cultivation and production. (They speak English).
The whole Mekong Delta region is known as the food basket of Vietnam and around this area there are a LOT of fruit trees of all varieties. Several times I took a motorbike or a bicycle to wind around the Delta identifying fruit trees and stopping for Cà Phê Sữa Đá - which is a thick intense strong coffee with condensed milk.
Cacao trees are quite tricky to grow since they thrive in the forest under dappled shade. They need protection from the sun and wind, which is why they thrive in the understory. I grew them in Cambodia on the edge of a national park where there was plenty of protection from wind, rain, and sun. They are tropical, but sub-tropical will work too.
If you don’t live in the tropics, you can create warm and humid conditions in a greenhouse but it may be an ache.( I have never tried, so I don't know). If you plant from seed ( I cheated and bought older saplings so that I could get fruit much quicker), the seeds will still need to be moist so you need access to a pod in the first place to start a tree off.
Dry seeds do not work very well - I tried once and failed miserably. As I said before, it's better to buy a sapling if you can. I really loved this eco learning experience - not just because I love dark chocolate - but also because we hear so many horror stories about chocolate production - child slavery and high pesticides and chemicals as examples. But this place has neither and they also use their cacao husks as a type of biofuel. I can't remember the specifics of it but click this link here to a page that looks at Cacao husk as a renewable source.
I hoped you enjoyed reading about cacao tree cultivation and chocolate making. I'm currently in Mexico and would love to find more places to visit like this. Do you have any suggestions?
Love, Marley and Me xx