Hailey's Tropical Chocolate! º First Harvest!

Recently I have learned the chocolate making process, at a friends farm. It's not hard at all. At Hailey's Fruit Farm, we harvested enough cacao to make about 50 chocolate bars, a great family supply. If we wanted to make more we could get more cacao very easily from a friend around.

Cacao tree's which chocolate is derived from, take three to five years only to start producing from seedling. With what we have started in new cacao trees this year, we will up our future production in 3-5 years to enough top make around 1000 chocolate bars. We could start more than this, and likely will close to but not on the farm; because this particular farm is more of a micro permaculture farm and we have chosen to plant a large diversity of species here.

With a few more tools to come, we will start to get together some raw chocolate, and then start to mix up maybe some milk chocolates.

It seems we may be in line to get some very rare and special strains of this plant species. Cacao seeds that are said to be naturally sweeter and lighter colored. There is another strain that finishes with a purple shell when ripe for harvesting that is coming to the farm. Three types of chocolate will quickly be fruiting in a few.

Cacao is a great tropical permaculture piece, and can grow quickly to provide sun layers for other plants.  Our method is to plant only or two trees within 50 x 50' space to gie lots of diversity with other plants, considering cacao has been susceptible to fungas attacks. Many grow the vanilla vine on the cocao tree.

Raw cacao is nature's most magical superfood due to

its nutrients formed of some 1.200 individual chemical components.

Cacao contains the highest concentration of antioxidants and magnesium of any food in the world. It is rich in chromium, theobromine, manganese, zinc, copper, iron, vitamin C, omega-6 fatty acids, tryptophan, serotonin, and more. Cacao is a highly effective natural energy enhancer and aphrodisiac. Cacao contains PEA, a chemical that we produce in our bodies when we fall in love. PEA molecules shut off appetite and makes cacao one of the great weight-loss foods. PEAs also play a role in increasing focus and alertness. Anandamide is an endorphin that the human body naturally produces after exercise. Anandamide is known as the bliss chemical because it is released while we are feeling joy. It has only been found in one plant - cacao.

- http://www.cacaomama.com/cacao/