This post serves as a synopsis of events from December 2015 until May 2016.

Since closing on the property in the Fall of 2015 tremendous progress has been made thanks to Marty and Richard.

Work started even before we officially owned the land and initial steps included cleaning fence lines, assessing the land more closely, clearing truckloads of barbed wire, dilapidated fencing and refuse from what had been old cattle pastures and clearing brush by hand in order to allow a tractor and bush hog to move freely. On-site security was moved into the larger house while the small house was made livable and the bathroom and kitchen completed. Since that time the caretaker has moved into the small house and repairs are being made to the large house.

Concurrently plans were drawn up to lay out the nursery, relevant supplies ordered and a crew set out to repurpose and relocate old corral posts for the nursery. While the shade-cloth, sprinklers and pots were being shipped to Belize Marty made a trip to the U.S. in order to purchase a used work truck, tractor and trailer and drove them all back to Belize. He has been told he is too important to make that trip again after being accosted on the highway by armed bandits.

Finca Work Truck

Finca Tractor

Finca Trailer (You can also see part of the 10,000 stakes ready to mark out where to plant trees to the back)

After picking up the shade-cloth and pots from their respective shipping companies, and clearing them through Customs, work focused on completion of the nursery and crews were trained on how to properly fill the 52,000 pots in preparation for planting.

View of Nursery Driving In – It is huge!

Nursery – Alternate View – Palm leaf serves as a windbreak on 2 sides and workers are topping off planted pots with rice hulls to maintain moisture levels for germination.

Richard sourced seed from a local farm in Toledo, Belize he works with and personally selected the trees which it came from. To date germination rates have been extremely high and the trees are doing well. The seeds are taken from freshly harvested cacao pods and immediately planted. The shorter the time between harvest and planting the higher the percentage which germinate. This is no small feat in Belize where nothing runs on-schedule and deadlines are typically ignored.

Cacao Pods – Emptied of Seeds Already

Cacao Seeds – each seed is hand planted into its own pot, covered with rice hulls and watered.

This synopsis is leaving out many details and all of the frustration but the end result is that there are 50,000+ cacao trees growing successfully in the nursery currently.

Cacao Trees – you can see the first trees planted in most of the pic while younger trees are in the right of the frame.

These will be cared for over the next few months in the nursery until they are ready to be planted. In the meantime work continues on clearing land and preparing it for planting. We are on track to meet our goal of planting 100 acres in this first 12 month period.

Soon to be a cacao orchard

Some existing trees were left in gullies to provide natural wind-breaks for newly planted trees. It is a bit hard to make out from the picture but the ‘brown’ area beyond the tree line is additional land that has recently been cleared and is being prepared for planting.

The take-away from this update is that the truly important things have been getting done over the last 6 months and trees are growing.

We are still a few weeks away from the Government of Belize handing us the deed (although it is a done deal – just govt. paperwork at this point) and we are working out the details of opening the Finca Chocolat bank account here in Belize which is no small task in itself. We are also starting to narrow down our search for a local accountant to ensure we take full advantage of local tax codes.

We close this post with a shot of Marty and Richard who we had to make stop working for a minute to pose.

Marty & Richard at Finca Chocolat nursery – May 2016

We intend to have an update quarterly in the future rather than bi-annually but if you have questions at any time do not hesitate to email, call or come see Finca Chocolat for yourself first-hand.