I made chocolate for the first time.

[saltphoenix@kolektiva.social]

I made chocolate for the first time. 😁
Ten years ago, I planted a seed that grew a tree that produced 3 pods that produced seeds that I fermented, dried, roasted, peeled, added sugar and ground into chocolate paste. It's delicious. The original tree where I sourced the seed that grew my tree was covered by lava in 2018.
#food #chocolate #foodforest #homesteading

[saltphoenix@kolektiva.social]

It didn't make a ton, so I'll probably grind it up with some of the macadamia nuts I got from my neighbor and make a lovely chocolate mac nut spread. 🤤
Curing mac nuts in the truck cab bc it's the driest place on the homestead.

[zl2tod@mastodon.online]

@saltphoenix

Macadamia nuts are *cough*difficult*cough* things to crack.

[saltphoenix@kolektiva.social]

@zl2tod I have the right tool for the job, albeit only one nut at a time. 😅

[zl2tod@mastodon.online]

@saltphoenix

I refurbished a machine used for splitting bulk macadamia nuts once: two large counter-rotating steel wheels with circular hard and sharp blades around their circumferences. The nuts dropped one at a time between the blades. The nuts had to be sorted by size and the machine adjusted for each size.

[rosalyn@kolektiva.social]

@saltphoenix this is so cool!!!!!!

[saltphoenix@kolektiva.social]

@zl2tod sounds like work 😅 all I do is
go thru and take all the husks off one at a time, then go back thru and shell them. One. At. A. Time. 😅😵‍💫

[zl2tod@mastodon.online]

@saltphoenix

Probably safer that way, you won't eat so many.

They are said to be toxic to dogs: paraplegia.

[florine@mastodon.green]

@saltphoenix really cool

[dasgrueneblatt@wien.rocks]

@saltphoenix 🤩

[saltphoenix@kolektiva.social]

Here is mama chocolate tree, when she was a baby. 🥹🥰🌱
#seasons #time #PlantTrees #foodforest #permaculture #homesteading

[bfordham@infosec.exchange]

@saltphoenix That is really amazing.

But also, um, "covered by lava"?!

[bfordham@infosec.exchange]

@saltphoenix Oh just looked at your bio. "I live on a volcano; on purpose." That makes more sense now lol

[saltphoenix@kolektiva.social]

I've been sitting here in the jungle for a long time. Just me and all this food I planted for all the people that are too busy to plant food. 🥹

[saltphoenix@kolektiva.social]

@Bfordham yes! By 2018, when the big eruption that took the tree happened, I had already moved out of the rental where the original tree was. The little seedling was already in the ground for several years at my little homestead by the time mama tree was taken by Pele. 🥰