Chocolate, Part 2

Welcome back. As we headed back home after the amazing visit to the chocolate plantation, I was the proud owner of a cocoa pod. Time has arrived for some experimenting. The banana is in there just for scale because this is a very scientific experiment.

 If you google the subject, you might find people suggesting all manner of methods for opening a cocoa pod. However, this is the method I learned from the expert: you just smack it a few times against a tree. We don't have any trees in our apartment, but we do have this handy counter top.

 After cracking the pod, you just sort of pull it apart like this.

Yep, there's slimy goo in here. Would you like to eat some?

 You're kidding, right? You want me to pick that thing up and stick it in my mouth? That's really gross. 

I think we can let one of them go, for science. Just don't bite it.

 I cut the top off a plastic pop bottle and cut holes in the bottom for drainage. Then I pulled out all the inards and dumped them into the bottle. This was my fermentation tank. According to everything I have read, it won't ferment unless you have on the order of 25 pounds or more. But I've only got one pod, and this is just an experiment. We're not expecting much.

 Ugh. This really is slimy.

 OK. The slime covered beans are all sitting in the bottle. The top of the bottle will go upside down and be a sort of non-air-tight lid. The stuff is supposed to drain and ferment for a week.

 Hmm . . . what can I do with these?

 So, this has been sitting in the laundry room fermenting for a week now. I stirred up the beans a few times and kept dumping the juice that drained off. It smells sort of like vinegar. Pretty strong. Something chemicalish was definitely going on here.

 They look a lot more like beans now. Or maybe some kind of bugs. We choose not to think about bugs. Beans. Yes, they look like cocoa beans.

 I have rinsed them a couple times. They're soft and squishy now.

 At least one place on the web suggested it would be a good idea to let the beans soak in water for a couple hours before laying them out to dry.

 So here they are, 48 beans. There were 49, but Tom sucked on one. We threw that one away. It's all part of the experiment. We shall now wait while these dry for a week. They're supposed to dry in the sun. We don't get any sun in our apartment. So, I guess they'll just sort of dry in whatever fashion we can manage. Stay tuned.

Chocolate Grows On Trees!

They grow chocolate here! Chocolate grows on trees! Who knew? We've also recently learned about cinnamon and cashews, but that's another story. Today we're talking about chocolate.

Elder and Sister Javier are a senior missionary couple who work at the temple. They own a house and a CHOCOLATE PLANTATION in a little city called San Franciso de Macoris. 

This is the front door of their house and we are honored guests for breakfast and a trip to the plantation followed by lunch. We experienced wonderful Dominican meals and similar hospitality. From left to right in the picture are the Javier’s daughter-in-law, who helped prepare the meals, Sherrie, Gina, and Sister Javier. The men are all hiding from the camera.

This is a cinnamon tree. Cinnamon grows on trees, too. Actually, it comes from the bark. Brother Javier peeled off some bark for us and we sucked on it. So this is where atomic fire balls come from. But that has nothing to do with chocolate, so we move along.

 





A little way out of town and up into the hills we came to the plantation that has been in the family for several generations. This blue house is where Elder Javier was born. His great great grandfather planted the trees many years ago and they have now somewhere on the order of 8000 cocoa trees. In Spanish it's cacao. In English we call it cocoa. I don't know where the name comes from. 

Pronounce it how you will, this brown thing hanging off the trunk of the tree is a cocoa pod.

 The yellow thing is also a cocoa pod. They come in several different colors depending on the particular tree, and they also change colors as they mature. But you can't tell by the color whether they are ripe. You have to "thunk" the pod. If it sounds like a milkshake then it's the right time.

 One particularly interesting thing is that the inside is not anything like you might expect. The pod is full of slimy white things. Even more bizarre is that you can pull one out, stick it in your mouth and suck on it. It's a little hard to imagine, but it didn't taste bad. Nothing at all like chocolate. That happens much later.

 No, really, you just reach in there and grab one of those slimy things. Remember in Ghost Busters when the guy got slimed? I think this is where they got the slime. And I just stuck it in my mouth and sucked on it for a while. It's quite sweet. Elder Javier eats them like candy. But you don't bite them. At this point only the slime is worth eating. The beans inside the slime are "agrio". I think that means bitter or sour.

 Bananas are ubiquitous. You can't get rid of them. And why would you want to? During a long hot humid day of picking cocoa pods, you might just feel like a banana. Or any of several other kinds of fruit for that matter. There are all kinds of strange fruit growing among the cocoa trees.

 Yep, Sherrie was there too. I think this particular pod is not quite ready yet, although  I didn't personally thunk it.

 On the other hand, this one looks pretty much ready.

 Pretty cool, eh? They just sort of grow all over on these trees. It's very strange looking to me.

 I guess it's time to stick another slimy thing in my mouth. Generally I'm not much for eating slime, but this is the stuff that becomes chocolate. How bad could it be?

 Elder Javier threw me this pod. He didn't say anything, he just tossed it to me. I decided to keep it. Experiment time after we get home.

 Here are some more pods just unexpectedly hanging off a tree trunk. Most interesting.

 Things tend to be done a little differently in the Dominican Republic. These are a couple of saddles. I presume when you're riding around on your horse through your chocolate plantation you need a saddle.

 And of course sometimes you just need to sit down and rest for a while in the comforting shade of a nice thatched roof pavilion. I suppose this is where they have the Saturday night dances.

 I'm not sure exactly what's in all these little buildings, but there is much extended family living all over the place throughout the plantation.

After you break open a pod, the slimy things you don't eat get put into fermentation boxes. After about a week in there, the slime has pretty much soaked into the beans and they now are set out to dry in the sun for a week or so. These are cocoa beans. If you could find a way to buy these, you could make your own chocolate - like in that movie called "Chocolat".

We had a great visit to the cocoa plantation. It was pretty cool. I don't think it would have been nearly so interesting had it been, say, an onion plantation. Chocolate, after all, is sort of magical. In fact, when it's all said and done, perhaps if Columbus had not discovered chocolate nobody ever would have heard of him again.

Not Always Boring

Let it be known that we do more than clean, have apartment repairs, and do laundry.

No, no, we don't dance in restaurants!  But we did go to Johnny Rockets and have dinner, a great milkshake and a fun time with some other missionaries. 

 

 According to a Santo Domingo travel magazine "Santo Domingo has the privilege and record of owning the World's largest Johnny Rockets Restaurant which came to satisfy and revolutionize the lovers of American food's scene."

Apartment Happenings...besides laundry

by Sherrie

I haven't written in a looong time.  It has taken me a loooong time to get used to this place and lifestyle.  I think the worst is over and things are looking up.  Hallelujah!

Here is a random smattering of a few of our doings.  Besides laundry.

We had a cleaning lady come and clean the apartment.  What a glorious event that was!  Brad wanted to slide around the floors in his socks after she left.  Everything was clean!  Cleaner than when we moved in! It was glorious.

 Millie cleaning our floors

Some apartment repairs were started in February.  Aye, caramba!  Many appointments were set for many workers to come and do many things.  Many workers didn't show up.  Many appointments were rescheduled.  And rescheduled.  Finally, things were fixed as good as it gets.  Except that now we're waiting for a guy named Rudolfo to come fix the air conditioners.

Working in the kitchen

Adding an electrical outlet in the bathroom

Replacing all the kitchen drawers and inspecting the gas oven

Our landlady directing a worker

Installing a smoke alarm in our bedroom

Our landlady decided it was time for new ceilings and light fixtures in the bathrooms.  Nice decision!

The old ceiling--the ceiling in the other bathroom was much creepier!  The panels were very dirty and there were big gaps between them so you could see-- look at the next photo... 

What you see when the ceiling panels are removed

Cutting the new panels

The square where the recessed light fixture will go

Waiting for the light fixture...

The light fixtures did get installed, and now we're used to them.

And just so you know, we do laundry.  Thankfully we don't have to go to a laundromat!

Through the locked and bolted door on the right is our laundry room and maid's room. (We don't have a maid.) On the left is the kitchen pantry door.

Through that locked and bolted door on the right is the garbage chute and the scary back stairs. Going out there is Brad's job, not mine.

 

Hurray for full-size US appliances!

Looking into the maid's room

 

 

Maid's room tiny bathroom

Looking up in the laundry room

Looking out the maid's room door. The door on the right goes into the kitchen.

Our hot water heater.  We always have hot water.  Yippy!

So there... an account of some things that have happened in our apartment.  Not very exciting, but hey--it's a blogpost!