Tropical Zone Gardening: Tropical Herbs and Spice!, 1 by Metrosideros

Metrosideros wrote:
Hey John, in Hawai'i a farmer could never do well by growing and selling cacao beans.
The only sensible way to make their production worthwhile is for the farmer to grow the beans and make the finished product as well.
The cost of making a high quality chocolate is too expensive for any common person. The machinery alone is not within most people's budgets. The time is consuming too; who has the time to conch (heat and stir) their chocolate for two to seven days?

I like the idea of a cooperative (thanks Sylvain!) and have been encouraging my family and friends to plant cacao, as well as Vanilla to flavor the stuff with.

Now I need to figure out how to make sweetener out of Agave!