John and Carol George and Maurgo drove for an hour from Punta Gorda, along bumpy dirt roads to reach Cyrila's. Juan met us and offered to tour us through his sustainable Chocolate farm. The drive to his orchard must be traversed by canoe in the wet season.
Juan's wife made some crafts and I bought a head scarf for Naiomi and Kendra . After the tour in the jungle orchard, Cyrila served us chicken in a chocolate pepper sauce. It was delicious. The chickens ran free outdoors.
Juan's daughter is sitting to my right. She and her brother sat making origami and were friendly as we ate lunch together. Juan was proud that his son was growing tall like George, and he said a good healthy diet makes the difference. The Maya people have become short and heavyset , a dramatic change in shape from the past stature they enjoyed.
They enjoyed cell phones, as did even the most remote Mayans.
These red chocolate pods were not quite ripe for us to pick. We did pick about 15 or so pods that were turning yellow and were ripe. We took them back to Juan's home where he instructed us step by step, how to make chocolate. Juan was using ancient Maya techniques to sustainably farm , inter planting vanilla, allspice and other plants in the mulched orchard. I spotted a jaguar footprint on the path. The mosquitoes were abundant. 
We smacked the coco pods together very hard and twisted them open. Then we scooped out the gooey white seeds and stringy insides, which all tasted faintly like chocolate. The beans were then cleaned, fermented and roasted . We sat for ages cracking the outer shell off the chocolate bean before they looked like the dark beans on the plate below.
We took turns crushing the beans on an old family stone slab specifically designed to crush the pods. It took a lot of strength and a specific wrist movement and pressure to crack the seeds into powder. But still we were not finished. A handful of raw sugar was added and with more grinding, the power gave up its oils and flowed into a paste. We scooped up some paste, added hot water, and rewarded ourselves with hot chocolate before lunch!
Juan grew heritage chocolate trees amongst the more common varieties. The resilience of the older trees helped the overall health of the orchard. Bees, birds, snakes, jaguars, mosquitoes, flowers, shade trees, mulch, it was a diverse growing productive jungle. We drove through monoculture orange orchards to arrive at his place, and Juan told us of the struggles of monoculture production in the jungle. They did not thrive.
Juan's wife made some crafts and I bought a head scarf for Naiomi and Kendra . After the tour in the jungle orchard, Cyrila served us chicken in a chocolate pepper sauce. It was delicious. The chickens ran free outdoors.
Juan's daughter is sitting to my right. She and her brother sat making origami and were friendly as we ate lunch together. Juan was proud that his son was growing tall like George, and he said a good healthy diet makes the difference. The Maya people have become short and heavyset , a dramatic change in shape from the past stature they enjoyed.
They enjoyed cell phones, as did even the most remote Mayans.These red chocolate pods were not quite ripe for us to pick. We did pick about 15 or so pods that were turning yellow and were ripe. We took them back to Juan's home where he instructed us step by step, how to make chocolate. Juan was using ancient Maya techniques to sustainably farm , inter planting vanilla, allspice and other plants in the mulched orchard. I spotted a jaguar footprint on the path. The mosquitoes were abundant. 
We smacked the coco pods together very hard and twisted them open. Then we scooped out the gooey white seeds and stringy insides, which all tasted faintly like chocolate. The beans were then cleaned, fermented and roasted . We sat for ages cracking the outer shell off the chocolate bean before they looked like the dark beans on the plate below.
We took turns crushing the beans on an old family stone slab specifically designed to crush the pods. It took a lot of strength and a specific wrist movement and pressure to crack the seeds into powder. But still we were not finished. A handful of raw sugar was added and with more grinding, the power gave up its oils and flowed into a paste. We scooped up some paste, added hot water, and rewarded ourselves with hot chocolate before lunch!
Juan grew heritage chocolate trees amongst the more common varieties. The resilience of the older trees helped the overall health of the orchard. Bees, birds, snakes, jaguars, mosquitoes, flowers, shade trees, mulch, it was a diverse growing productive jungle. We drove through monoculture orange orchards to arrive at his place, and Juan told us of the struggles of monoculture production in the jungle. They did not thrive.
Juan told us a true story of the day he had some very demanding tourists visit him and insist that he tour them through the orchards. They were rude and critical and had no sensitivity to the other people that had prearranged to tour the sustainable farm that day. After lunch these 2 men admitted proudly to being Monsanto representatives and tipped him $100 for the tour. Juan is an educator and activist and had been partly responsible for raising awareness of Genetically modified corn that Monsanto had brought into Belize. Every kernel of corn was burned and destroyed as the farmers decided it was not of benefit to their farming practices to use GMO seed.
Juan and his family are totally committed to the sustainable methods of growing, and keeping an eye on all of the separate interacting lives on their land. Quantity of production was not their goal and they could not guarantee to fill orders and run their lives as producers of organic sustainable chocolate.
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