Farm to Table

Though the humid heat can be stifling, I loved summer in the South because in my family the season meant a garden full of crunchy green beans, juicy tomatoes, fresh herbs and trips to local farmers’ markets to pick up the fruits and veggies we didn't grow ourselves. 

Lucky for me, living in Bocas del Toro, Panama, has been like living in a perpetual summer filled with local agricultural products, many of them new to me! Though I often offer to buy products from my neighbors, it’s also culturally common for me to be gifted any of the local foods in exchange for helping out on the farm or simply just stopping by to say hello.  As an extra bonus for me- since I’m getting the produce in my site, I don’t have to hike it in like everything else I eat!

So, what’s available here?

All year round we have cacao coconuts, culantro, bananas, plantains, papaya, a scattering of peppers and rice, and several varieties of root vegetables.  Though yucca, dachin, name, and ñampi are  prepared similar to potatoes, they have a richer taste (and come in shades ranging from white to purple!)

Seasonally we also have pineapple, pixvae, orange, lemon, guava pods, cashew fruits, soursop, and coffee. 

In addition to the crops, most families have chickens for meat and eggs.  Families with access to a little more resources may also have turkeys and/or pigs, and the most well off families have a few cattle.  Other than chicken, meat is considered a special occasion thing.  Add in the fact that we don’t have refrigerators to preserve meat, and that means that meat days are big feast days.  Obviously, I’m a fan.  

Cacao!  My favorite local product, obviously

A local pod-like fruit with a delicious fruit

A meal packed to-go: fried pork pieces with boiled green bananas

Local products for sale and exhibit at a local agricultural fair

Chocolate Week, de nuevo!

One of the things I most looked forward to during my training as a Peace Corps Volunteer was our cacao technical training- or, as I like to call it, Chocolate Week.  Since generally even the most educated and experienced agriculture volunteers have little experience working with tropical Panamanian crops like cacao, we receive an additional week-long, in-depth training a few months after arriving to our sites.  

Why the wait?  Well, sometimes you just have to experience life and work in your site to know what types of questions you need to be asking.  

Whereas the majority of Pre-Service Training is led by office staff, technical weeks during In-Service training are facilitated almost entirely by second year volunteers who have excelled in the main sub-project areas (Cacao, Coffee, and Rice and Fish Tanks).  One of my closest friends, Zoe, is the National Cacao Coordinator and together we chose to host cacao week (heretofore referred to as "chocolate week") in my site due to the relative ease of transport and local technical support.

So what did we plan for our volunteer visitors during chocolate week?  Nothing but five days of wonderful, chocolate bliss. Cacao volunteers have many projects working on both sides of the production chain ranging from farm planning to agroforestry techniques and finally (my favorite) chocolate processing and product marketing.  Since the volunteers focused on the earlier parts of the chain during Pre-Service Training, most of our week was focused on the latter steps.

Day 1 

The first day we reviewed the most tedious agroforestry technique-grafting, and also taught the volunteers about pruning since the trees weren't quite ready to be cut back until now.  

Grafting is a tricky technique that entails inserting a tiny part of a healthy tree into an older, lower producing tree.  If and when the new graft sticks, you'll eventually cut away the old tree and leave the new one to grow and take advantage of the older, more developed root systems.  This process can completely revitalize older farms, but is sadly hard to master. 

Cacao flowers-The very beginning of chocolate!

Day 2

To quote a Spanglish version of the 4-H motto, hay que (you've got to) "learn by doing." We took that to heart and threw the volunteers straight into the fire the second day by assigning them to plan and facilitate a Farmer's Field School for the producers in my site.  

Lucky for them, Zoe had pre-planned most of an amazing work-day that taught farmers how to make GPS maps of their farms and take inventories of the hundreds (or thousands) of trees that they have.  We had a very successful day and several other producers have already asked me to help with their farms next!  I'm almost jealous of the baseline data my follow-up volunteer will be inheriting...

Following a long day on the farm, we all came back to my house for my favorite part of the week- the "Chocolate Bar!"  We melted 100% cacao and dished bowls out to each volunteer who was then able to mix sweeteners (sugars, honey, and syrups), nuts, berries, and various other fillings and toppings to form their own chocolate bars (or lumpy balls, in our case). 

Day 3

To reward them for their hard work so far, we started the day off with a waterfall hike and homemade cinnamon rolls.  While enjoying our treats, we talked about the upcoming year and made work plans for the cacao projects they wanted to accomplish in their sites.  

After lunch, the volunteers helped out at one of my Baking and Business classes, where we made chocolate coconut cake and eagerly ate it while talking about the costs and potential profits of selling it.  

Day 4

Though my town has some pretty nice farms, we wanted to show the volunteers what an amazing farm looks like, so we made the "short" trip to Changuinola to tour a beautifully managed cacao farm.  A 30 minute hike, 20 minute bus ride, 40 minute bus ride, and 10 minute truck ride later we arrived at the farm where we saw tree nurseries, exemplary grafting and pruning, and perfectly planned rows.  

Since Peace Corps likes to work with host country governmental agencies, we also visited with our local branch of the ministry of agriculture to share our work plans for the coming year and talk about how we can work together to help local communities.

Day 5

Finally we arrived on the last day of chocolate week and once again made the trip out of my site- this time to take the famous Rio Oeste Chocolate Tour and then to meet with COCABO, the local cacao cooperative that most of our producers sell to.  

I was especially excited about the chocolate tour in Rio Oeste since it's both walking distance from my town (a long walk, but a walk nonetheless) and widely regarded as one of the biggest "must-do's" in the province of Bocas del Toro.  Though we didn't learn anything new on the farm tour, it was neat to see how the information was presented to tourists, and I could definitely taste a delicious difference in their chocolates from the ones produced in my town.  Since one of my community counterparts accompanied us on the tour, I'm excited to work with him in the future to determine which techniques and ideas we can implement for our producers as well. 

A Ngäbe farmer and his cacao dryer

Hiking along the Rio Oeste Chocolate Tour

A Ngäbe woman demonstrating the traditional way of grinding chocolate by hand

Narciso, one of my most active community members, accompanied us on our tour

Everyone loves chocolate

The new volunteers - Whitney + Zoe and I after tech week

So now it's one for the books (and the blog)- Chocolate week 2015 was a delicious success.  

The Life of Chocolate

November is here and that means some awesome things are happening in Panama: Independence days (yes, plural) parades, random festivals, and most importantly... chocolate season.  

While chocolate (cacao) trees can produce fruit all year long, the biggest harvests are November-early January.  Having always been a chocolate lover, I was ecstatic to learn I'd be working with the production and processing of one of nature's most delicious fruits.  Though I've always preferred the business side of my job, even I have to admit that getting to work with each step of the chocolate process is pretty cool.

From pre-service training (PST) to chocolate week at in-service training to simply working with my neighbors in site, I've learned so much about chocolate this year and am excited to finally be blogging about it! 

Fun Facts

Cacao trees take 5 years to produce their first fruits, but can continue producing for ~50 years!

Ripe cacao pods are bright yellow, orange, and red and roughly the size of a nurf ball

The beans aren't brown- they're actually a deep purple until toasted

The milky white gel that surrounds each bean tastes like a watermelon jolly rancher

White chocolate is made by cooking the natural fats out of the darker chocolate

Cacao trees can only grow at certain latitudes 

The Ngäbere word for chocolate is Oreba

I can get a fist-sized ball of chocolate for 70¢... it's almost dangerous

Agroforestry

Cacao trees are generally started in small bags in a vivero- a tree nursery that provides partial shade and protection from the elements.  After a few months, they are ready to be planted in forested tropical areas with plenty of heat, sun, and rain.  Three-five years after planting, the trees should be producing their first harvests and with good care and maintenance can continue to produce chocolate for up to 50 years- though they generally produce their highest volume harvests between 10 and 20 years of age.  

Harvesting

Our trees produce the majority of their fruits between November and January, and when it's time to harvest, the whole family heads to the farm!  After being clipped from lower branches or guillotined off of higher ones, cacao pods are collected (usually in a backpack basket) and then cut open in order to get to the good stuff- cacao beans surrounded by a white, milky fruit. 

Processing

After being collected from their pods, cacao beans are fermented in wooden boxes for 3-7 days before being sun-dried for another ~10 days.  Some driers are much nicer than others and have rollaway rain covers or multiple floors, but the most basic option is a simple raised wooden platform.  Ideally, beans should be mixed with a wooden rake every few hours to ensure even drying.

Next, the cacao beans are toasted for up to an hour, thereby making your house smell wonderful. After they take a moment to cool off, the beans are then peeled.  At this point they're called nibs and can be eaten just like that.  They're pretty bitter and taste similar to a coffee bean.  To continue with the chocolate making process, the nibs are ground into a thick paste.  No liquids are added in this part- it becomes pasty thanks to all of the natural oils present in cacao!  If desired, you can then put the paste in molds (or banana leaves) to let them harden over the next few hours.  

Finally- chocolate!  Though expensive, modern machinery is needed to produce the smooth chocolate bars we buy in stores, there's something seriously delicious about eating the same chocolate you picked off the tree.   

Marketing and Selling

Depending on how the community intends to use or sell their cacao, from this point there's a few different routes they can take.  If they're using their cacao, the mothers of the family will likely heat the cocoa with water and sugar to make a dark hot cocoa which is delicious when cooked with lemongrass.  While some communities do sell fully processed chocolate bars, most sell the raw, dried beans to a cooperative or middleman who can then sell them on the international market.  Beans are usually cut in half and tested for moisture content and overall quality before an offer is made.  After that, the beans are packaged according to quality and are on their way to becoming the chocolate you know and love!

Interested in learning how to use cacao in baking or cooking recipes?  Check back next week for my favorite chocolate recipes!

IST and Chocolate Week

In February I headed to Cocle, a province in central Panama, for our in-service training. During the first week everyone from Group 73 was reunited as we went to sessions related to grant writing, youth development, gender and cultural issues, and dealing with domestic violence. The SAS program also had some time together to cover ag-related topics and take a few field trips to visit agencies and a pretty dang cool organic farm. Though the days were long and packed full of activities and information, it was great to see volunteers who are normally so far from me, and the information couldn't have come at a better time; I'm feeling much more inspired for my work in site!

Getting ready to drink some locally grown and processed cane-sugar juice

Cane sugar "honey" and the farmer who made it

Since we all work in such diverse projects, we split up for the second week of training so that we focus more on the topics that matter most to us. Lucky for me, that meant spending a week learning all about cocoa, complete with cooking experiments and a "Create your own chocolate bar" activity. Have I mentioned that I love the perks of my job?

 home-made chocolate chips

Carly, the volunteer I visited during Pre-Service Training last year, is actually the National Cocoa Coordinator and hosted the majority of Cocoa Week in her site in Bocas del Toro. Since there were only 6 volunteers in training and 2 volunteer trainers, week 2 was also that much more intimate and laid back, which was a welcome break.  Though I was anxious about staying with host families again, I got paired with a super nice family who remembered me from my last visit. Not only did they cook me awesome food and provide good company, but they even sent me home with a bag of homegrown veggies, chocolate, and coffee!

In the mornings we focused on the various agricultural aspects of cocoa- everything from grafting and pruning to harvesting and a-sexual propagation, and in the afternoons we spent more time on the processing side of things. Obviously this mandated cooking projects and plenty of taste testing. The best part is, that kind of stuff isn't just for fun. This coming week I'll be using one of my new chocolate recipes to teach women in my site how to bake (and sell) birthday cakes!

Visiting COCABO, the local Cocoa co-operative, and learning about bean quality

Apparently the week was going a little too well for me though, because 2 or 3 days in I got sick with parasite-type symptoms and had to go to the doctor to get it checked out. Though I certainly never want to be sick, there's some sort of an odd satisfaction you get from getting a diagnosis of something other than "Maybe you just ate something bad." At least that's certainly how I felt when I got to add a new notch to my internal parasite belt, this time with a pretty nasty Protozoa. Thankfully, a few days worth of pills and I'm all recovered... For now.

Overall, Cocoa Week was a big (and welcome) catch-up to many of the knowledge and skills I was lacking, and I'm looking forward to putting what I learned to use in my site. I now have a small but dedicated group of farmers that I'll be focusing a little more time and energy on, and we're planning to do farm inventories and an introduction to record keeping in the coming months. Seeing as though this will be completely new information and ideas to everyone, it sure looks like I have my work cut out for me!

Chocolate Day

Carly leading the financial loss activity

The first few months of Peace Corps service are mostly spent getting to know your community members and learning what activities have the potential to work and which ones you shouldn't waste your time on.  Although I've loved taking it slow for awhile, I am SO excited to really get to work and start planning activities.  

Counting damaged cocoa pods for a cost analysis activity

Other than my community analysis meeting,  my first actual activity was what I´ve been referring to as "Chocolate Day."  It just so happens that the national Cocoa Coordinator is a neighboring volunteer, and she is awesome.  Of course, this made it that much easier to plan a full day´s worth of activities revolving around chocolate.  Have I mentioned recently that I love my job?

A few of the producers that were present...

And my pup, who is always present.

In the morning, Carly talked with a group of producers about small steps they can take to produce higher yields and improve their cocoa.  Since I´m focusing on the business aspect of things, we also completed a little activity to find out how much money a particular farmer was losing due to a controllable fungus.  The results were astounding- Over $2,000!  

Although Carly had to leave shortly after our producers´ meeting to get back to her site, we continued the day with a baking class where we made brownies over a fogon- essentially a campfire type set-up that the majority of families use to cook with.

Some of the baking class attendees

Using only locally available ingredients, we made some prettttty awesome dulces if I do say so myself.  Shortly after reaching for brownie #3 (or was it 4...) I realized that the attendees were being polite and holding back.  Once I guiltily told them to pack some for their families though, it was like flies to a lightbulb.  Though it was certainly a fun activity for the local women, I´m really trying to organize activities like this to also empower them and encourage them to think about alternatives to simply selling their cocoa beans unprocessed.  After all, what tourist wouldn´t want a delicious, locally produced fudgey brownie?

Watching as these kids discovered the delicious world of brownie batter= Priceless

I would include pictures of our brownies... but they didn´t last that long :)