It has been fun, creating blisters on our hands, sweating in
the hot Caribbean heat, and falling a couple times on the slippery slopes while
learning how hard a good days work is for a Grenadian Farmer. Getting the
pleasure of learning how to use a cutlass takes time and a little bit of the desire
to destroy. A mixture of precision and strength the main tool of a Grenadian
farmer is used for Everything. You learn to respect the tool, the sharpness,
strength and versatility. Today the tool was used to harvest cocoa pods.
Earlier in the week the tool was used to clear and cut trees into smaller
decomposable pieces to replenish the soil. They are also used to peel a juicy
orange for a nice afternoon snack while working in the bush.
As said, today we harvested Cocoa
for our first time. Walking up and down Kim’s farm with my cutlass at the ready,
I picked up the cocoa pods that Devon had knocked down with his tool of choice,
a long bamboo rod with a knife at the end. Using the back tip of the cutlass, a
simple flick of the wrist and the cocoa pod becomes stuck to the end then
placed in a bag. Making piles of cocoa pods as we gather more and more pods we
decide we have gathered enough for today. The next process is splitting the
pods and pulling the wet seeds out. Using the trusty cutlass, another flick and
twist the pods split apart and seed fall out. Picking out by hand the couple
seeds that hide in the bottom of the pods, the wet seeds are placed in buckets
and hauled down to the sweat boxes. To finish off our day of harvest the wet
cocoa seeds are poured in the sweatboxes and cover with banana leaves to keep
the heat in. Now we wait and let the fermentation of the seeds do their own
work. With a good days work along side a handy cutlass, our first harvest was a
success.
Peace,
Charlie
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