Today Ixcacao (Juan and Abelina's Chocolate Business) was expecting a small group for a chocolate tour. For me, this meant up early to help with the cooking and prep. For Ned this meant heading downstairs to continue the cocoa powder grinding, sifting and packaging. First in order was breakfast. What interesting dish will Abelina have prepared for us today? For lack of a better description, I'd refer to it as a Mayan McMuffin. It was two thick corn tortillas, about the size of an English Muffin, with a spread of refried beans and what Abelina said was bacon. It didn't resemble our American bacon, but looked like a cross between jerky and Canadian bacon. It was quite tasty. She also served bananas and the traditional Mayan hot chocolate instead of coffee. This drink is pretty much a staple around here with a pot going at all times. It is very different from the hot chocolate most of you know. It is basically hot water slow simmered with cacao powder. When it is served it is warm and not sweet at all. It is usually served with side condiments of hot chili pepper, sugar cane syrup and milk. You can basically create the flavor you want. Juan likes it with the pepper, Abelina likes it with the cane sugar and I like it with a dash of milk. The hot pepper concoction is pretty tasty, but for me not first thing in the morning.
By day three I'm beginning to get the hang of things around here and am hopefully now more helpful than being a nuisance underfoot. In other words, I got the basic drill. First rule, go with the flow. Second rule, nothing goes according to plan, Third rule, what plan? I began by sweeping up the open air room and getting it cleaned up for the group coming later this morning. This means picking cacao leaves and flowers from the garden and decorating the table. I also knew Abelina cooks with a lot of coconut milk so after picking the coconuts, (Abelina still had to crack them open, I haven't mastered that yet) I did the grinding of the fresh coconut and began the squeezing, adding water, squeezing to get a good quart.
Ixcacao is in a lot of ways the hub of the community with a lot of people coming and going. Two Mayan woman, very nicely dressed each with an umbrella to protect them from the hot sun, dropped by for a morning hot chocolate. This meant getting a table set up and serving them the hot chocolate as described above. They stayed and visited for awhile, enough to throw off the cooking and prep for the scheduled guests. A very gregarious and friendly Garifuna woman came up to the house yelling, "I need chocolate" in the most delightful Caribbean accent. She was really very funny. Abelina told me later that she went on to become a doctor in Los Angeles, but has now returned home to help the oldest settled Garifuna community of Barranco. Knowing that Juan and Abilena have a lot of guests, the local villagers are always stopping by seeing if they want to buy their vegetables, etc. One Mayan woman especially caught my eye. She had a baby strapped to her back and was dressed in the traditional Mayan garb. She was very shy and wouldn't make eye contact with me. Abelina later told me she had 7 children and was very poor so she bought some chives from her to help her out. I guess everything is relative. We think of Abelina and Juan coming from modest means and they are most likely the most well off in their community. The rest of the morning was spent chopping bitter gourd, cassaba, yams, culandra, peppers, carrots, etc. The best part was listening to the stories Abelina told me. Her sister Carmelita returned home to her village so it was just Abelina and myself. She spent 3 hours telling me the most amazing story! I felt so honored that she opened up to me and shared with me intimate details of her Mayan culture from a women's point of view. (Marilyn, I can't wait to share some of this with you).
The tour group today was an Arabic couple from Oakland, CA! They live close to our daughter Molly and the woman works at Google. Such a small world. They had with them twin 2 year old girls. Brave people. They had signed up for the traditional tour with Juan, learning about the world of cacao, experience making chocolate the Mayan way, and staying for the Mayan lunch. Ned participates with Juan on these tours. I know he is loving the interaction and learning and contributing his knowledge of chocolate as well. We are definitely making great connections for Cello Chocolate. Our lunch today was cassava cooked in coconut milk and spices, mashed root yams made with coconut and spices, coconut rice with vegetables, a rice and spicy bean dish, calallo with carrots and chocolate chicken. People around here don't starve! Even tho most of the dishes are made with fresh coconut they all taste completely different. I can't even name all the different spices she uses.
This afternoon Ned and I worked in the chocolate lab packaging more cocoa powder and then Juan took us to one of his "farms". Juan has purchased 3 different plots of land in the rain forest over the course of many years. This newest piece of property he purchased last year is about 15 acres. Juan is very passionate about saving the rainforest and creating a sustainable environment incorporating traditional Mayan ways. He learned everything from his grandfather. We went to the newest farm and wow was it an education! Within the last 3 months Juan has planted about 300 cacao trees. (Actually students from Harvard and Brown Universities have come to study the rainforest and help plant the trees). Cacao thrives under the canopy shade of the higher tropical trees. For about an hour or so Juan walked us through the rainforest and it was like drinking from a fire hose trying to take in all the information. What I saw was a thick, humid jungle full of thousands and thousands of green plants. As we walked, Juan kept up a running commentary pointing to this and that saying, "This is a poisonwood tree good for treating infections, this is a cockspur tree good for treating snake bites, this is allspice, this is rosewood, this is sapolla good for chiclet, this is copal used as a resin incense for Mayan ceremonies (which we've experienced), cohun for thatched roof and the nuts which animals feed on." He also showed us different animal tracks, many of them freshly made such as jaguar and tapir. We also heard the howling monkeys and saw the most amazing butterflies. One of them was HUGE with a great big eye on its wing called an owl butterfly. We were there to help him put the leftover cocoa shells around the newly planted cacao trees, and place germinated coconuts for growing. He also showed us yams, okra, cassava, beans, pineapple, oh I can't even remember all the things he pointed out. Juan wanted to keep walking deeper into the rainforest jungle, but it began to get dark and I was getting eaten alive by mosquitoes so I was ready to leave. Tomorrow he'll take us to his most mature "farm" and we'll see his cacao trees that are ready to be harvested. Juan and Abelina really live almost completely off the land and very rarely buy anything.
As I'm writing this Abelina just brought me some gibnut soup. What's gibnut you say? It's a rodent native to Belize and is a highly prized dish, mainly because it is known to feed on cacao. She just said to me, "I left the skin on. It's very delicious." Okay folks here goes....You know what? It is delicious!!! I told Juan it tasted a lot like pork and he said, "Yeah, guinea pig." Funny guy. Abelina says they also eat snake and monkey. Mmmmm. I'm going to end this blog with an off-color joke, but I don't mean any disrespect to anyone, just trying to impart some local humor. Juan pointed to one of his roosters and said "Look, Mayan Redneck." Funny guy indeed.
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