Plant 30,000 native trees Costa Rican owned farms

Rainy season has begun in Costa Rica and that means tree planting season. With the support of donors like you, our reforestation work is able to expand to a whole new community in San Jose de Rivas, near Chirripo National Park. We chose this community for numerous reasons.

It all starts with a human connection because our reforestation work is socially integrated in order to assure long term maximum survival of every tree for future generations. The process started back in January when two leaders came to our nursery asking for assistance in reforesting some steep deforested areas around a water spring that nourishes the entire area with fresh potable water. Concerned for the future of their water supplies, we began investigating if the rest of the community would be committed to participating in efforts to replant and care for a wide diversity of trees in this zone. Jessica and Eduardo came to our biodiverse tree nurseries over the last six months many times to work and learn how we produce the baby trees, organize our work, and learn to  inspire the rest of their community to get involved.

After making a solid connection with their community, these new leaders with Founder, Jenny Smith, offered an educational TREE TALK in the communal salon in the pueblo to gauge interest and commitment to the long reforestation process. Because current employment only consists in coffee farming in the zone, fairly paid jobs are a huge incentive for many members of the community to participate. So many people participated in the three hour conversation about biodiversity and the importance of trees to protect water supplies.  All signs indicated YES!

Yesterday, we delivered 450 biodiverse trees to a holding space in the community for acclimatization. Loading and unloading the trees is a great opportunity for everyone to connect and learn more about the different species of high altitude trees we will plant in the beginning of July. Another delivery of 600 trees will be made in two weeks for a total of 1050 trees of 40 species to be planted this year. This weekend we are investigating the planting site with the 7 workers, men and women, who will be doing the physical labor of carrying the trees to the site, planting and maintaining them for a total of 4 years paid by your sponsorship. We are so excited to share news about the continued progress of this new project as well as the ongoing maintenance of all trees planted in past years! 

Thank you for your continued support in our integrated work with communities in Costa Rica for the benefit of all of us! The more communities we can reach with biodiverse reforestation, the better our chances for saving the rainforest and stopping deforestation, as well as protecting water supplies and global hydrological cycles.  

At Community Carbon Trees, planting all different kinds of trees gives us plenty to harvest.  We are growing sustainable business with rainforest reforestation in the center.  The maximum positive impact to mitigate climate change on the planet is to reduce carbon emissions to lower temperatures and balances the water cycle. Trees on the Equator do all of this for us, and more. Planting new forests of trees with fairly paid local workers on their own farms creates a longterm commitment to rainforest conservation. Building a full circle of complementary entrepreneurial opportunities that empower women makes the reforestation work even more valuable. 

For example, we plant hundreds of Theobroma Cocoa trees on every participating Costa Rican owned farm.  In just four years, we have already begun harvesting the fruits. It all started when a cocoa chef from San Francisco Jay Holacek contacted us, seeking to participate with our active and organized community. Of course, we said yes. The local farmers all brought some of their cocoa harvest and we placed the beans all together inside a wooden box for fermentation for approximately one week. Often other fruit is also mixed in to accelerate the process. We learned to check the beans for good fermentation by cutting them in half and observing that no fungus has grown on the beans. This is key to flavorful, smooth tasting chocolate. The process is time-consuming and delicate. More and more, with the world demand for chocolate and dwindling resources, organic, wild crafted chocolate is a sought after delicacy. For now, we are happy to be learning the complicated process.

After proper fermentation, the beans must be dried. Most chocolate chefs prefer sun dried cocoa beans.  They must be kept dry and for approximately three days and then stored in airtight dark place.   We have learned that making chocolate is like making fine wine. Every harvest is different depending on the soils, the weather, the shade, the fermentation, and the drying and toasting process. 

After the beans are dried, toasting the beans to the desired smooth flavor begins. On average, toasting takes about 30 minutes at 340 degrees.  Then the shells are cracked open and the women roughly grind away the shells and break the beans into smaller pieces called "nibs". Some people like to eat the nibs plain and we have already had success selling them at local farmers markets.  One the shells cracked away from the beans, we used a blow dryer to "winnow" away the shells from the cocoa "nibs".

Now everything smells incredible and tasting begins in earnest. We used an old champion juicer to rough grind the toasted cocoa beans into cocoa "liquor".  This is a slow process. We ran the paste through twice to create a shiny, smooth liquor.  Now comes the sugar. But not just any sugar. Our chocolate is extra special because our ACCT community group grew and prepared the brown sugar too. Using traditional methods, the sugar was cooked down and poured into seasoned wooden molds. We toasted the grated brown sugar or "tapa dulce" to make sure it was dry before mixing in 35% sugar to %65 pure, cocoa liquor.  Our 1 kg batch of chocolate liquor was ground all night long with a fabulous machine that our chef loaned us. The next morning, we awoke to a completely homogenous and smooth paste, sweet, rich, flavorful and free of bitterness. 

Stay tuned as we grow more opportunities from the trees you help us plant with your generous sponsorships. Thanks for your continued support. The more trees we plant the more chocolate we can make. The more businesses we grow from the trees, the more sustainable the rainforest will be.