Post by cheebs on Nov 21, 2008 0:49:21 GMT -5
Today I got up very early for the two hour drive down to my friend Jorge Rademann's cacao estate, Finca Los Ujuxtes (pronounced "los oo-hoosh-tays") for a great time of walking around, taking pictures and enjoying a beautiful day.
Los Ujuxtes is very interesting for Guatemala in that it never was a criollo plantation. They imported a good amount of trees of the pre-1979 Costa Rica Trinitario that was predominant at the time, just before most of that country's cacao was wiped out. Now, they grow their own from seed when they need to insert new trees.
The estate itself is mind-blowingly beautiful. Nestled on the Pacific side slope of the Atitlan volcano, with lush vegetation and majestic trees that are too big to properly photograph. The cacao is healthy and highly productive. Although this is a very small farm, they produce around 33,000 lbs of cacao annually.
The visit was short, just the morning walking tour of the estate and facilities, lunch and then a quick drive back to Guatemala City.
Sadly, there wasn't a lot of activity, as their heavy harvest time is over, but I'll be back in two weeks to document the parts of the process that I missed.
A google earth image of the farm's location
And some pictures.
3 large pods
A red pod
A white pod
Some big magenta pods
And a humongous pod, this beast was easily 14 inches LOL
A pod with bird damage. A big black beetle took advantage of the situation and moved in.
And a tree just loaded with pods
Cacao flowers
And a flower with a bunch of baby pods
The empty fermentation hut
Drying cacao in the sun
And Eduardo with the sacks of ready beans
Eduardo and farm owner Jorge Rademann
Los Ujuxtes is very interesting for Guatemala in that it never was a criollo plantation. They imported a good amount of trees of the pre-1979 Costa Rica Trinitario that was predominant at the time, just before most of that country's cacao was wiped out. Now, they grow their own from seed when they need to insert new trees.
The estate itself is mind-blowingly beautiful. Nestled on the Pacific side slope of the Atitlan volcano, with lush vegetation and majestic trees that are too big to properly photograph. The cacao is healthy and highly productive. Although this is a very small farm, they produce around 33,000 lbs of cacao annually.
The visit was short, just the morning walking tour of the estate and facilities, lunch and then a quick drive back to Guatemala City.
Sadly, there wasn't a lot of activity, as their heavy harvest time is over, but I'll be back in two weeks to document the parts of the process that I missed.
A google earth image of the farm's location
And some pictures.
3 large pods
A red pod
A white pod
Some big magenta pods
And a humongous pod, this beast was easily 14 inches LOL
A pod with bird damage. A big black beetle took advantage of the situation and moved in.
And a tree just loaded with pods
Cacao flowers
And a flower with a bunch of baby pods
The empty fermentation hut
Drying cacao in the sun
And Eduardo with the sacks of ready beans
Eduardo and farm owner Jorge Rademann