Growing Cocoa the Natural Way

In our last blog post, we wrote about the importance of growing cocoa in its natural habitat, among flowers, fruit and spice trees. The taller spice trees provide just the right amount of shade for the smaller cocoa trees; the tiny midges that thrive in this environment pollinate the cacao flowers; and the fruit that falls from the other trees decomposes in the soil and lends the cocoa a rich and complex blend of flavors.

On our model organic cocoa farm, we grow all kinds of delicious fruit. Passion fruit grows on vines that climb up other trees and over the trellises we build for them.

Oranges, of course, grow in trees.

Deron Georges, one of CFFI's farmers, has harvested some "figs," as we call them here in Grenada.

The money that we make selling our fruit helps keep CFFI going, so we can continue supporting local cocoa farmers by providing high-quality seedlings, organic fertilizer, and training in sustainable agriculture.