The crew at Finca Chocolat started September with approximately 40% of this year’s crop of trees planted. Considering last year we were not even able to start planting until mid September we have definitely seen some efficiencies come into play this year. A second 110 acres were cleared this year and Marty and his crew are working to ensure all the trees are out of the nursery and into the ground by the end of the year.
The process remains the same with starting seedlings in the nursery, staking out the lines for planting, digging the holes and adding appropriate inputs prior to planting the seedlings.
Finca Chocolat 2017 Staking out trees – Just a few of the stakes.
Finca Chocolat 2017 – Holes ready for seedlings
2017 Trees – 1
2017 Trees – 2
Marty with 2017 seedlings
Work will continue for the next few months maintaining the existing trees and planting those that remain in the nursery with the goal of finishing the year with another 100+ acres planted (for a total of 210+ acres in the ground by the end of 2017).
The trees planted in 2016 are doing well. It has been a bit wet the last 10 days so the crew has not been able to bush-hog between the rows so things look a bit scruffy currently but the trees are growing and doing well. For a true comparison look back at last year’s update to see the difference in size.
Finca Chocolat 2016 trees as of September 5, 2017
Finca Chocolat 2016 trees as of September 5, 2017
Finca Chocolat 2016 trees as of September 5, 2017
On another other front, a good bit of thought has gone into an initial fermentation and drying facility that will likely be constructed in 2018. We will need to add more capacity for fermentation and drying as the trees mature (2020+) but the plan is to build what we need for the next few years in order to work out any design issues prior to building a full-sized facility.
As always, we hope to see you on-site at some point to see the farm first-hand.
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