This past Saturday, Madre Chocolate (the company I now make chocolate with) participated in th Aina Ho'ola o Ma'ilikukahi or "Hands Turned to the Soil" conference.This conference raises awareness of where our food comes from, how it is grown and encourages folks to get their hands dirty doing the work that brings food to the table. We were invited to demonstrate how locally grown cacao beans become the snappy, glossy, melt in your mouth chocolate bars we consume.
Governor Neal Abercrombi and his lovely wife Nancy dedicated a new herb garden to Nancy's mother complete with a traditional Hawaiian blessing and a local, farm to table, organic, vegetarian mid day meal. Madre Chocolate was the entertainment during the meal. Nat showed the kids how to make a frothy Mayan chocolate drink. We ground chocolate on premises and poured some samples for all to taste.
The best part of the whole experience was of course the kiddos. It was so much fun to see such enthusiasm mirrored in these kids for some thing I love so much.
Things got really hands on with the molinillo (frothing wand used to make the delicious beverage) and the piedra de moler (grinding stone). You can see in the photo above, one young lady still going to town grinding those nibs! I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that chocolate is exciting to so many - young and old, from all walks of life. It is wonderful to see a special treat like chocolate bring people together. We can all relate to this kind of delight.
Below is a video with more information about Aina Ho'ola o Ma'ilikukahi.
Aina Ho'ola Conference 2010 from Jenna Ishii on Vimeo.
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