On the 15th March the Don Simón Club once again supported the 5K race, this time providing hot chocolate for race competitors. On the day members of the club learnt how to make hot chocolate in milk and water, making five liters of the delicious liquid for people to drink. Positive reviews of the […]
Recently we have been harvesting, fermenting, drying and roasting our cacao produce. Once we had then peeled the cacao roasted cacao beans the agricultural students learnt how to add value to the cacao nibs by processing it. This involved setting up an grinding machine used for grinding maize to produce arepas, and then, grinding the […]
This last week saw us finish the fermentation of our cacao harvest and its subsequent drying in front of the science department building for all to see. This was then finished by roasting the beans in the oven at a slow and steady temperature of between 110-140°C for 30 minutes. Now we have to peel […]
During the Christmas vacation BGVs kindly came to school to water our Bolivar Garden. This meant that no more cacao trees died. Unfortunately, during the summer months, with no way to water the plants consistently about 20 of the 64 cacao plants that we planted perished. However, coming back to school we re-assessed the cacao […]
We have just got back after the summer hiatus and have visited the garden with my new, huge, group of Agricultural Plant Science Elective students – 21 of them! One of the biggest classes I have ever had. The garden is a bit overgrown after the summer. The terrace needs to be finished so that […]
During the last class of the week the agric students and I mananged to finish the planting of the 64 cacao trees in the plot! After 190 hours of human endeavour, from reassigning holes, mixing soil, digging out new holes, allocating clones to planting, we have done it! Now we just have to protect the […]
A wet day was expected for this years 5K race – we have a weather station and can predict the weather! We had a stand offering Don Simón Coffee to participants which went down really well. People could see live data from the weather station and were taken to the garden and showed around the […]
Early on a bright and sunny day a bunch of volunteers, students, teachers, parents, social service students (and some in detention) came to the Bolivar Garden to plant our 64 clones! The day started by collecting more compost from Carlos´s compost area and mixing it with soil residue from Dr Martin´s mushroom farm. This was […]
On the 28th of March Angel and I went with the school truck to Miranda, Cauca to the Fedecacao Research Centre to pick up the clones that we had ordered two years ago. It took us an hour to get there. Once there we were taken on a tour of the site where […]
After almost two years we are finally ready to receive and plant our cacao plants. This has meant in the last two weeks we have been re-assessing and mapping out where plants will be planted. Having had the holes dug and filled with compost over a year ago, and with stakes having rotted away or […]
