CocoTerra founder grows cacao trees in Northern California, proving chocolate can be made at home
How to grow a cacao tree at home
Cacao trees need tropical warmth and years to fruit, but CocoTerra founder Nate Saal managed to grow them in the San Francisco Bay Area. This step-by-step guide covers choosing seeds, indoor vs. outdoor growing, germination, repotting, hand-pollination (since only midges pollinate cacao), and harvesting pods to make single-origin chocolate. It also explains cherelle wilt, the natural fruit drop that tests your patience.
The flowers are only fertile for a day or two, so don’t miss your opportunity to pollinate. Also, the flowers are more receptive in the early morning hours, so as they say… the early bird gets the cacao pod!
- whatever1
I love chocolate.
But man some some times I wonder how desperately hungry were the people who made something edible out of the cocoa tree.
- uxhacker
Until I saw this I was wondering where Switzerland and Belgium got there cocoa from, because I have never seen a tree growing in either country, and one is always hearing about Swiss and Belgium chocolate.
- pvaldes
Just for the record, Spain produces Cacao since 2022, with the first 70 Kg of fully European Cacao on 2023. Courtesy of some cunning and patient sapiens. And it only toke 100 years of work.