Catchy name right? But what does it actually mean? Doesn't the cocoa/cacao tree grow like in a farm or jungle? Well actually, the cacao tree grows on tropical areas within 20 degrees of latitude from the Equator. Ok yeah, but how does it end up growing in an urban environment? The small farm we´re managing is actually located inside a private natural reserve called Hacienda Tara, in the outskirts of San Pedro Sula, which is the industrial capital of Honduras.
We actually got the name from Helen Lopez, when she visited our farm in 2021. Helen is an internationally famous chocolate taster based in Madrid, who came to the "Salon de Chocolate" in Honduras in November 2021. In her busy schedule, she managed to come visit our place and at the end of the tour around our facilities she came up with Urban Cacao.
Our main goal is to be able to process the cacao pods, turn them into other products (butter, soaps, chocolate, etc) and use our facilities to host workshops and other activities that bring attention to the wonderful world of cacao. For this we are working with agronomists, other farmers, and voluntaries who wish to help according to our availability and needs.
All of our work is done with an environmental and sustainability scope. For example, we´re only using organic fertilizer to help our trees get enough nutrients. We´re also working on using the organic waste of the hole reserve and neighbourhood next door to make it into compost that will be used to better the overall soil health in the cocoa farm and also used to make urban gardens (coming soon).
Urban cacao is becoming a big part of our community. We already started building our fermentation centre and are almost ready for our first harvest this year (end of February). Stay tuned for more updates.