Machetes and Making Chocolate

December 5, 2007

Such delicious evenings this week! I love the fact that I have to be bundled up (okay, bundled up these days equals, one long sleeve shirt) to sit outside. I spent a good portion of the evening sitting outside in my hammock writing Christmas cards. An ironic combination for northerners for a December evening. I heard that they were getting snow in PA today which always makes me a little envious, but I am thankful for the beautiful evening I had at camp to remind me, that yes, there is much natural beauty here too. I saw Orion for the first time tonight and once again the Seven Sisters were twinkling overhead.

My adventure of the day was an attempt to make chocolate. Thanksgiving week I had picked up a cacao which they can get chocolate from. You can suck on the bitter fruit around the seeds and then you dry the seeds to make the chocolate. I had already dried the seeds so this morning I put them in the toaster oven and for a short while I could smell the wonderful aroma of chocolate. At first I was startled by the explosions taking place in the oven but decided it was okay. It was just the shell separating from the rest of the seed. I went outside to do something else and when I re-entered the house and looked at the cacao seeds, I realized that they seemed a little over done (and on the verge of burnt). I proceeded with what I thought was the chocolate making process, though I really was not sure. I crushed the seeds in the blender and then added some milk, sugar, and water and boiled it all on the stove. Sadly the burnt taste was too much and very little chocolate flavor actually made its presence known. It would have been great to have made chocolate straight from the bean but I cannot really claim success this time.

The other even of the day – I now own a machete. I need to get lessons on how to safely use it though. A machete is an all purpose tool here in Honduras. You can use it as a trowel for planting flowers. It is great for cracking open coconuts. You can even “mow” with a machete. My uses will be mostly limited to whacking a coconut here and there and clearing paths from time to time.