maggiw1 – Page 2 – UCI Costa Rica Program

May 8, 2013April 2, 2019

A trip to the real Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory

Written by: Cassie Grainger

The short walk down the dirt road, passing a small purple house and cows lounging on a hillside, our noses were greeted by the poignant, rich smell of pure chocolate that led us to a chocolate farm.

This chocolate farm, La Iguana Chocolate, is maintained by Juan Luis and his family. His family began the production of chocolate with pure cacao seeds and unrefined pure cane sugar in 2005, after studying eco-tourism. The land holds approximately 3,000 cacao trees about 2 meters in height with branches extending out that produce cacao pods growing from the trunk of the tree. The trees produce the cacao fruit year round with peaks from September to November and throughout May and June. Each tree usually produced 30 pods of the fruit in one year. The trunk is lined with flowers but only 2% are fertilized and produce fruit. This small percentage is due to the only pollinating insect, the Loca fly.

Juan Luis led us through the process of producing a fine quality chocolate, with the help of a translator. The steps are as follows:

Once the pods turn yellow, they are cut off using a machete. The pods are opened and the seeds are extracted from the central area.
The seeds are placed in a fermenting bath. Fun fact: the fermenting bath is as old as the farm! The seeds are enclosed in a soft texture of white goo, so in order to extract the seeds they are placed in a fermenter so the goo can be dried and seeds collected.
The seeds are then placed on a screen to be dried out for 3-4 days, then 1 day in direct sunlight. The farm used to use a tarp but the seeds were not drying enough so they switched to a screen method. Also, if the seeds are stored properly in plastic bags they can be kept for up to 2 years!
Next the seeds are roasted for about 20 minutes and are let stand to cool.
The seeds are then shelled. (Our group was put to work at this step.) At this stage, you can really taste the chocolate, but without any sweetener they are very bitter! Hardly anyone liked the taste.
The seeds were then placed in a homemade electric grinder. This grinder was created by an engineer from Ireland that was working the farm as a volunteer. The grinding resulted in a paste like substance. The paste could then be pressed to extract coco butter. The coco butter is used in several other products they make, like soap, chapstick, or placed back in the chocolate to add richness.
The pressed powder/paste is then mixed with tapa dulce, also known as sugar cane. The tapa dulce is preferred because it local, healthier and stronger in flavor.
The mixture is then placed into a spinner, which creates a finer mix, allowing the flavor to be blended in evenly.
The La Iguana Chocolate final step is to weigh out 11g of the blend which is placed into plastic molds the size of three stacked quarters to then be sold…or eaten!

Juan Luis and his staff gave us unforgettable behind the scenes look into seeing the purity of creating their delicious chocolate. And although it didn’t quite look like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, it tasted just as yummy!

May 4, 2013April 2, 2019

Really, it’s a toliet.

I know what you’re thinking. A composting toilet? Really? Your face is probably in a bit of a grimace and your mind is probably saying “hmm, I’m not too sure about that one”. It is basically a stationary porta-potty made out of wood, so I understand that reaction to it, but I’m going to show you a different face of composting toilets.
I used four different composting toilets on this trip and every time I used one I had the same feelings. One was a sense of peace and refreshing silence. The other was a feeling of contribution and completing a planetary cycle. Every group member I spoke to had basically the same experience. Let’s find out why!!

To start we will look at our current toilet system. We have a big white thing sitting in all of our restrooms that we visit occasionally throughout the day. You go in, do your business, flush with a ridiculously large amount of water that is obnoxiously loud and then you walk away without a second thought. I’m asking you to take a moment to think about it. In America, about 27% of our household water use goes to flushing the toilet. Not only do we waste water but then we send that wastewater to a sewage plant to be treated and released. So we actually put energy into cleaning something that could clean itself or could even provide us energy.

There are two kinds of composting toilets. One is wet and one is dry. The wet compost toilets are the ones at Rancho Mastatal that are hooked up to an anaerobic digester. This system produces methane, which is captured and used as energy in their kitchen. The kind we used the most was the dry compost system at Siempre Verde, which is this one here.

The system is very simple. You do your business, put the toilet paper in just like a normal toilet in the US and then rather than a flush, you scoop in some sawdust from the local sawmill and done!!

No loud flushing, no smell, and no waste! On top of that you get to look at this beautiful forest and mountains while you are there. Every time you go to the bathroom you are contributing to the compost that can then be used at the base of trees for nutrients. Talk about following the cycles of the planet!

You may be wondering what is happening in-between your contribution and the actual product that is used. That is also a fairly simple process. There is usually one side of the toilet area where a full bin is stored for about 6 months until the bacteria have broken it down. You can see what I’m talking about in this picture of the back of a composting toilet at Villas Mastatal.

After it sits for 6 months it comes out looking something like this. I picked up a handful of this by the way. Feels and smells like normal compost. At this point it is nothing like its original waste form. It is now a nutrient-rich and completely useful compost.

Sure there’s no door to close, nothing to flush, maybe some cockroaches in the bottom, and no light at night but how can you not be excited about the peacefulness and efficiency of such a system!

April 25, 2013April 2, 2019

Even the bees are peaceful

Written by: Lauren Wong

On one of our afternoons in Costa Rica, we came across stingless bees at a farm called Villas Mastatal. I had never heard of bees that did not sting people and were still able to produce honey. I learned these abejas (bees in Spanish) are known to locals as “markitas”. Not only do they not sting, they also practice selective pollination instead of pollinating all plants they encounter. These bees produce less honey, but their honey is much stronger, sweeter, potent and used for medicinal reasons. Our guide Javier told us a drop of honey is placed in a human’s eye if there is an infection. In addition, the bees seal up the chimney hole of their home at night with wax to prevent ants and other insects from crawling in.

I thought the relationship between bees and a person in Costa Rica versus the United States is symbolic of how Americans view their wildlife. I know that where I am from, California, people always run away from bees and avoid them at all costs. We fear bees and underestimate their role in the ecosystem. They are critical to pollinating plants and making sure our plants and flowers are thriving. In Costa Rica, the bee homes are strategically placed close to the edge of the forest so they will be close to plants but the bees are free to roam as they please.

Javier also told us that bees in America are typically Africanized bees and pollinate everything, not differentiating between crops. He also said it is bad for bees to pollinate only one type of crop and farmers often have to transport the bees from farm to farm to ensure they can pollinate efficiently. Even the bees in America are being put to work for the sole benefit of producing larger and more plentiful crops. In addition, although the bees from Costa Rica produce less honey, the quality is much higher and the people only take what they need. The United States takes a much more business-like approach to farming and reaping their crops. In Costa Rica, we visited four different farms and I noticed that fruits and vegetables were being grown in smaller quantities, but they were also using much more natural and eco-friendly methods of growing them. This shows Costa Ricans take what they need from the earth’s resources and do not try to produce unrealistic amounts by polluting their plants with pesticides and unnatural substances.

I have a larger appreciation for people who locally grow fruits and vegetables and I hope upon returning to Irvine, I can take advantage of our farmers market or even try growing my own produce. The stingless bees taught me a lesson in where my food comes from and how it is produced. I sure hope one day I can taste honey from those stingless bees someday!