Cacao thrives in tropical climates 20 degrees north and south of the Equator. Native to the Americas, nowadays 70% of the worlds cacao is produced in Africa, where child slave labour practices are still in effect. Raw chocolate is mainly sourced from Ecuador, Peru and Bali, where it is fairly traded and ethically produced.

The cacao starts as a seed, as all things do, and grows into little seedlings which are then transplanted into an ideal growing condition amongst other companion trees such as banana, vanilla, coconut and coffee to name a few. With careful care, most cacao trees begin to bear fruit in the fifth year, although some cacao trees can yield pods in the third and forth years. A cacao tree reaches peek production in approximately 10 years and will continue producing pods at a high level for an additional 12-13 years. It is not uncommon to find trees 30-40 years old, still producing pods.

Thousands of tiny, waxy pink or white five-pedaled blossoms cluster together on the trunk and older branches. But only 3% to 10 % of these blossoms will mature into full fruit.

The fruit grows as green or maroon pods on the trunk and main branches. Shaped like an elongated melon tapered at both ends, these pods ripen to a golden or sometimes scarlet hue with multicolored flecks.

Once the fruits are ready to be harvested, which is indicated by the colour of the pod, they are cut off the tree, collected and cut open with machetes. One person can collect up to 650 pods a day. The beans are then scooped out and removed from the flesh. Some raw cacao companies might ferment the beans, but most do not. The moist beans are then laid on clean, hot roofs and raked over throughout the days to assure even drying. Once dried, the beans form a skin which needs to be removed before any further production can be done. In order to remove the skins, the beans are shot against a wall with a fan blowing on them; as the beans shatter and skins comes off, the fan blows the skins away to be discarded and the nibs fall into a large container.
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These nibs are now either packed to sell to individuals, shipped off to chocolate companies who use them raw or roast them in house or further processed. The next processing stage is to make cacao liquor. In order to do this, the nibs are cold pressed (for raw production) into a liquid which then hardens into a smooth paste. This is also used in chocolate production, both raw and cooked. If the goal is to make cacao powder and cacao butter, this liquor -- consisting of fat (cacao butter) and mass (cacao solids) -- will have the fat removed from it, giving us cacao butter, and the remaining mass is dried and made into cacao powder.

Amy Levin hosts a variety of raw culinary classes in South London, England, and travels throughout the UK and North America to consult businesses on how to create the best raw desserts for their menus and product lines. She has published three eBooks; A Passion for Raw Chocolate, Raw Fermentation (co-written with Jo Balfe) and What is Raw Chocolate? and has now released her Raw Chocolate classes as online learning courses.

October 18, 2013

Ever think of creating an organic food garden in a self-watering container?

Yesterday I put together two self-watering container gardens on my back porch. 


Here's how I did it:

1. I assembled each City Pickers Patio Garden kit. (I mail ordered the kits, but they're available in some Lowes or Home Depot stores.) The kit is a square plastic container with a plastic grid that sits a few inches above the container's bottom (perched above what will be a water reservoir). A black plastic watering tube sits in the corner and rises above the area where you will add the planting media. 

There are four casters to place on the bottom of the container, but they weren't fitting into the holes. I called the company for help, and the phone woman said to heat the rod on each caster with a blow dryer, but I don't have one. I ran one of the caster rods under some hot water but that didn't seem to help much. I then hit the top of the container hard with my hand, to try and force the caster rod into the hole, but I wound up only hurting my hand.

2. The night before, I had soaked a "brick" of coconut coir in 2 gallons of water to hydrate it. The coir (which gets mixed with other media) helps to "wick" up the water from the reservoir, to nurture the plants or seeds. After assembling the two containers, I placed a thick layer of the hydrated coir atop the plastic grid in each one. 

3. Into each container, I then placed about three alternating layers of the following (all of which I found in Lowes): Majestic Earth Sphagnum Peat Moss, Sta-Green Vermiculite, and Just Natural and Organic Mushroom Compost.

4. On top of those, I sprinkled two tablespoons of Omri Micronized Azomite on top. Wearing plastic gloves, I then mixed all of the media together with my hands.

5. I placed the black plastic mulch cover atop each container, poking holes for the watering tubes, and secured each one to the lip of the containers with the four tiny clips that came with each kit.

6. I then devised a plan for which seeds I would plant where in each container. I had bought organic seeds packets from Whole Foods Market a year ago. (I know, I was bad for procrastinating so long to finally assemble my gardens, but I felt intimidated about how and where to find the right ingredients for the planting media mix, and how to get them upstairs, as they were too heavy for me to budge from the back of my car.) I decided to hope for the best in using these now year-old seeds. I did purposely wait until Oct. 18 to plant the seeds, as that was a full moon, which is said to be the best time to plant vegetable seeds.

7. Seed packets usually say to plant rows of each vegetable or herb. But because there was so much space between the top of the soil and the mulch cover, it would have been hard to do that. So I simply poked a hole in the mulch cover in about six places per container and dropped maybe 5 seeds of each vegetable or herb into each hole. I then added a tablespoon of Omri Wiggleworm Soil Builder Earthworm Castings atop the seeds, and pressed them down (through the small holes I had made in the mulch covers), hopefully far enough down, ranging from 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch, depending on the seed variety. But I was very improv, figuring it works for my recipes, so why not my garden?

8. I then poured a small amount of water into each seed hole, and also filled the watering tubes (which took a lot of water).

9. Here's what I planted: 

In one container, "Garden 1" (see photo at top): from left to right: Red Winter Kale, Cucumbers, Turnips, Basil, Parsley, and Spinach.

In the other container (which I will call "Garden 2"): also from left to right: Spinach, Turnips, Basil, Arugula, Summer Squash, Italian Lacinato Kale, and Cucumbers.

10. I also have a packet of lavender seeds, but they need to be started indoors. (Update: I planted the lavender seeds in tiny plant pots, the type that you can put right into the planting media, which I did after the seeds sprouted. I placed them on top of the barren parts where the seeds never sprouted. I also removed both mulch covers, because the seeds began sprouting in a very strange way, with extremely long stems, and some of them, like the cucumbers, just didn't make it. I don't know if that was due to the mulch covers or to the seeds being a year old.)

I had wanted to grow mint, collards, dandelion greens, rosemary, coriander, oregano, thyme and more, but didn't readily find seed packets for those in my travels. I probably should have mailed-ordered them. I do have non-organic mint growing in my kitchen window, and non-organic basil, plants I found at a market.

I'm sending friendly vibes to my newly planted seeds and looking forward to harvesting some wonderful greens, herbs and veggies in a few months! See a photo of Garden 2 below:

Have you ever had pili nuts? They taste kind of like macadamias, but instead of being round and hard, they're long and soft. They're delicious and buttery and practically melt in your mouth; they're really fun to eat. Stephen James Organics sells them in small cans (perhaps for using in recipes), and in smaller packets, for nibbling. 


Pili nuts have an array of nutrients. As Nutrition Data shows, they contain a lot of Manganese, Thiamin and Phosphorus. On the negative side, they're high in saturated fat and in Omega 6 fatty acids. (To prevent chronic disease, we need to increase the volume of foods in our diets that are higher in Omega 3s, like walnuts, as the George Mateljan Foundation explains.) Another negative is their price: a 5 1/2 ounce can (150 grams) costs $12.98. But maybe the high price is a good thing, as it keeps us from eating more than a few at a time, just as a treat. 


They add a certain something to raw vegan recipes, as we found when we blended 1/4 cup of pili nuts to our batters for dehydrated pancakes, and a few to salad dressings and sauces. They would also add creaminess to a smoothie or to a raw vegan ice cream recipe. And while we're talking about sweets, we should mention that Stephen James Organics also carries a chocolate version of the pili nuts. In either flavor, they would make a nice stocking stuffer for the holidays.