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While the snow flakes are falling the cocoa pods are ripening...
It's the beginning of cocoa picking season!
After they cut the pod open, the wet cocoa beans are collected in five gallon buckets. The buckets are often carried on foot to the boucan, the cocoa cooperative. Even the simplest tool, like a wheel barrel, could make the burdensome task of lugging the buckets to the cooperative easier. It is a day's labor.
First the buckets get weighed. Then the pods are sorted and then stored in the Sweat Boxes and covered with banana leaves to concentrate the heat during the fermentation process, which takes 6-8 days. The beans are turned twice daily.
Busy hands at work.
Once the fermentation process is over, the beans are spread out on drawers to dry in the sun. The drying process can take up to seven days if the conditions are ideal.
Once they are thoroughly dried, they are packed in burlap bags so they can breathe.
Bags and bags of beans...
Waiting...
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