Special thank yous to Pamela Boyar and Annie Suite of Haleiwa Farmers’ Market for their patience, support and get it done abilities.  To Melanie Boudar, the chocolatier of Sweet Paradise Chocolate for her guidance, use of the chocolate fountains, and much assistance in getting it together.  Many thank yous to 21 degrees restaurant and Palm Terrace at Turtle Bay Resort, Alan Wong’s Restaurant and Town Restaurant for providing plentiful samples of sweet and savory delicacies for everyones tasting pleasure.

Thank you esteemed panel of judges, and Skip Bittenbender of CTAHR for demonstration of making chocolate and information on how to grow cacao.

And of course a BIG MAHALO to the Waialua Estate volunteer crew including Mike Conway and Marian Chun, as well as my own home team Rebecca, Kaoru and Akari Powell,  Emily and Cassidy Lanter.  I couldn’t have done it without all the help and support you all gave to pull this off.   Let’s do it again next year!

Below is an excerpt for the Haleiwa Farmers Market Newsletter with photos and more on the the event.  Thanks Annie Suite for fantastic photos of fabulous food creations and happy faces.

Big Mahalos to all 5000 of you who joined us for the fun and delicious treats this past Sunday at the 1st Annual Cacao Festival! And big Mahalos to Alan Wong’s Restaurant, Ed Kenney & Town Restaurant, John Armstong, Ben Tabious & 21° N at Turtle Bay, Melanie Boudar from Sweet Paradise Chocolates, Ola Loa Wellness, Skip Bittenbender from CTHAR and especially Derek Lanter & Mike Conway from Dole Diversified Agriculture Waialua Estate Cacao!

Our beautiful day started with a traditional blessing, before our guests wandered through the many booths filled with our usual farmers market offerings of the freshest locally grown fruits and vegetables and our special Cacao offerings… including Chocolate Fountains showering Waialua Estate Dark & Milk Chocolates, samples from our guest chefs, and a tent full of submissions to the Chocolate Recipe contest, where Vice Speaker Michael Magaoay, Howard Dicus (radio & TV personality… and his lovely wife!), Melanie Boudar (Sweet Paradise Chocolateir), Martha Cheng (Freelance Food Writer) and David Calciero (Chef de Cuisine for Town Restaurant) tasted their way through the entries and selected our prize winners.

Grand Prize Winner Ben Tabious and his
Chocolate Cake with Ginger Ganache and Caramelized Bananas! Wow!

Winners in the Confections Category: 1st Place Noella Montiero (Chocolate Orange Panna Cotta & Waialua Estate Iced Hot Chocolate); 2nd Place Richard Samiley (Madras Curry Truffle); 3rd Place Patti Gallagher Jones (Malie Kai Cherry Bark). Winners in the Savory Category: 1st Place Lan Thai (Crab Cake Citrus Salad with Waialua Dark Chocolate); 2nd Place: Christine Watanabe (Waialua Estate Chocolate with Cacao Nibs Panko Seared Beef with Waialua Chocolate/pozu jus); 3rd Place Arlene Boyd (Auntie Arleen’s Oahu Chicken Cacao) Winners in the Baked Sweet Category: 1st Place Sabrina St. Martin Chocolate Banana Nut Bread with Homemade Chocolate Butter. 2nd Place: William W. Kanour, Jr. (Lucky You Live in Hawaii Chocolate Cake); 3rd Place Monique Vander Stroom (Chocolate Cream Cheese Shortbread Mini’s with Waialua Chocolate dipped Sea Asparagus)

Hale‘iwa Farmers’ Market

is celebrating the transformative power of Cacao- from colorful pod to delectable taste sensation- with its Hawaii Cacao Festival on Sunday January 31st!

Enter your favorite original chocolate recipe in the Cacao & Chocolate Recipe Contest.

A chance to win an Escape Club Membership from Turtle Bay Resort for the grown-ups and a private surf lesson from North Shore Surf Girls for the keiki.

Judges will include Vice Speaker Michael Magaoay, radio & tv personality Howard Dicus, freelance food writer Martha Cheng, Cookie-man Wally Amos, and Hawaii chocolatier Melanie Boudar.

Prizes for five categories: Baked Goods, Confections, Savory, Keiki Creation, plus the Hawaiian-Chocolate Grand Prize awarded to the most outstanding recipe in all categories using local Hawaii chocolate.

Sample the delicious creations from Town Restaurant Chef Ed Kenney and 21 Degrees North Chef John Armstrong.

Discover a whole new world as you hop the E Noa shuttle to visit the Waialua Estate Cacao orchard.

Learn about cacao’s nutritional benefits from Ola Loa Wellness. Visit with Wanda Adams, author of The Island Plate I & II, and Entertaining Island Style, and have her sign your personal copy of her books.

Learn how to make your own chocolate liquor from Skip Bittenbender of CTHAR. ( UH College of Tropical Agriculture) Buy a cacao tree for your yard- sales to benefit the Urban Garden Center.

Fun activities for kids include: decorating Mr. Cacao Heads, face-painting, and crowning yourself king or queen of the festival in your own artistic crown-creation! Everyone can enjoy the live music while relaxing in the 75- seat café.

Hawaii Cacao festival At the Haleiwa Farmers MarketRecipe Contest: Drop off: 8-9 a.m.; Awards: 11:30

Recipe Tastings: 11:45 a.m.

Chef Demos: 9a.m.-1 p.m.

Kids Activities: 9 a.m. - 1p.m.

Shuttle to Cacao Orchard leaving throughout the event.

Call Pam Boyer for additional info 388-9696

or visit the Haleiwa Farmers market

3 stages of coffee ripeness: under ripe, ripe and raisin

At the end of October,  the coffee trees heavy with fruit, the equipment prepared and the crew ready to go, we launched into our 2009 -2010 harvest season and brought the first coffee cherry to the mill for processing.

So,  how do we harvest over 150 acres with a lean crew of nine workers?  We send two to the field to pick cherry and have seven at the mill to process and dry.

Chris and Eddie run the harvester

Oh, did I mention the Korvan Harvester?  This peppy little mule is operated by our two harvesters Eddie and Chris.

Korvan Harvesters were designed to be used in the fruit and berry  industry for harvesting blueberry, raspberries, and grapes.  The machines were custom modified to be used in the coffee industries from Brazil, to Australia to Hawaii.  They have been operated in this industry  for over 20 years now and are especially useful where coffee production has large tracts of hedge row tress and terrain that is open and rolling.  Thus the equipment is adaptable to those coffee operations that were planted on former sugar cane lands, but would not be useful in steep, rocky terrain areas.

Korvan Coffee Harvester

The harvester uses a large wide picking tunnel that allows the machine to straddle the coffee hedge rows and the fiberglass fingers comb through the tree and cause the loose cherry to drop down to collection plates and onto a unique bucket conveyance system that gently carries the fruit to a holding box.

In this way we are processing between 10,000 to 15,000 lbs of coffee cherry on a harvest day and harvesting around 4 days per week and will harvest around

Harvest of under ripe, ripe cherry and raisin

500,000 lbs of coffee cherry between November and January.

Next time, we’ll take a look at how the under ripe, ripe and raisin coffee is separated, pulped and dried at the coffee mill.

Aloha,  Derek

The first load of the 09-10 harvest season

Melanie stirs it up

A couple weeks ago, local chocolate expert Melanie Boudar, of  Sweet Paradise Chocolatier, held a Truffle class at her store in Kailua, Oahu.   Feeling the need to get creative with chocolate,  I signed up with my daughter Cassidy, to spend a couple hours on Sunday learning something new and making elegant treats for our friends and family.

Chocolate is often consumed in its bar form, or eaten as a confection or pastry produced by an experienced chef or chocolatier.   It is something of a personal jump to go from simply eating a chocolate bar to actually working with chocolate.

Ganache

To measure out the right proportions of chocolate and other ingredients, melt and stir them and then hand work with the thick,  viscous mass is an altogether different experience.

There are guidelines to follow when mixing chocolate with other ingredients, particularly liquids that will interact with the fats in chocolate and will affect consistency and texture.  There are temperatures to be be aware of,  ratios, timing, combination of ingredients, etc.

Cassidy Concentrates on Chocolate

At first it can seem a intimidating;  what if I make a mistake, ruin a batch, gum it up, make a mess… Well, yes,  that will probably happen at some point.  That’s part of the process.  Chocolate is an adventure; take chances, make mistakes, don’t take it too seriously.  In time, understanding and technique will improve.

Truffles setting up

But with Melanie’s guidance, we worked our way through 3 different receipes without incident.  By the end of the class, we had produced a raspberry infused truffle, a ginger, cinnamon infusion and a coffee truffle with a dark chocolate / milk chocolate ganache.

Chocolate treasures

Some of these were simply rolled in cocoa powder in the traditional soft truffle form, and others were dipped into a liquid chocolate to make a crisp shell couverture enrobing the soft ganache.  Our creations, though not quite professional, proved very attractive and flavorful and were well appreciated by our friends and family.

Sweet Paradise has tasting, pairings and trainings from time to time and also has a store at the Kings Shops at Waikoloa on the Big Island.  To learn more see the website www.sweetparadisechocolate.com

Pam Boyar, North Shore Farm Tour, Waialua Coffee

Back in mid-September, Haleiwa Farmers Market managers Pam Boyar and Annie Suite

Pam inspects the coffee

organized one of several North Shore Farm Tours, showcasing some of the farms, fruits, vegetables and other produce being raised in the Waialua district of Oahu.

A small group of 30 people visited several farms including Dole Pineapple, Waialua Estate Coffee and Cacao,  Twin Bridges Farm and North Shore Cattle Company for a sampling of the diversified agriculture happening in the area.

Mike talks about Waialua Cacao North Shore Farm Tour

Participants were able to meet and talk with the farmers, learn about the operation and taste the fruits of their labors.

Mike Conway provided background on Dole’s Pineapple operation and Derek Lanter talked about Waialua Coffee and Chocolate while Mike presented the cacao orchard.

Events like these farm tours are one of the ways Waialua Estate is doing outreach and teaching the community about coffee and cacao production on Oahu.  With one small step at a time our coffee and chocolate is being discovered, appreciated and talked about.

We appreciate everybody’s interest and support and look forward to more tours as we grow and organize our operation. 

Newly prepared land in Cacao Orchard

Waialua Estate Cacao added  2 more acres to the orchard this summer.  The ground was prepared and the rich deep soil turned, irrigation lines run and the young trees planted in their protective cages.

Cacao Keiki

In about 4 years we will see the first pods on these newly planted trees.

It is exciting to think about the changes and developments that will occur in the coming years, and we look forward to tasting the beans and chocolate bars these trees will produce.

Cacao trees are planted in special tubes to protect and provide support

Ripe and ready to pick!

As September comes to a close, we are making ourselves ready for the coming 2009 coffee harvest.

This years crop looks very promising with well nurtured full bearing trees.  The cherries are ripening nicely and in another 2 weeks or so we will start.  In the meantime we have focused on mill and harvester maintenance,  cleaning, organizing, repairing and

3 stages of coffee ripeness: immature, ripe and raisin

replacing all in preparation for many tons of coffee that will be processed through the mill over the next 4 months.

We are excited to begin and with good weather and a bit of luck and providence we will bring in the bestcoffee  harvest in Waialua in many years.  Stay tuned, we’ll keep you posted  as the

season progresses.  Aloha,  Derek

Heavy bearing coffee tree

Puerto Rican Coffee Delegation memebers

marketing agencies, agriculture department representatives, university professors and others associated with Pureto Rico’s coffee industry.  The tour of Hawaii’s coffee producers in Kona, Molokai and on Oahu was organized by Shawn Steiman of Coffea Consulting.

Mike talks about the Waialua Coffee operation

Looking to Hawaii as a model for ideas and inspiration in premium coffee production, the Puerto Rican Coffee Association hopes to improve quality in its own local industry and attain a higher  position in the world market.  Waialua coffee was happy to be included on the tour and to provide a helping hand in the spirit of the specialty coffee industry.

Nick and Claire cupping Waialua Coffee

Getting together with Claire and Nicholas at Whole Foods Market Kahala to talk story and consider several samples of Waialua coffee for the store.

Samples of green and roasted beans were set out on the table for evaluation and three types of Waialua coffee were brewed and tasted with all the proper ritual and  form.

Claire-considers-the-brew

The Peaberry and Fancy Grade selections scored high marks.

Pouring the elixir

The Kahala Whole Foods Store currently carries Waialua Estate Chocolate in the Specialty Foods department, and will soon be adding Waialua coffee to the Locally Grown Hawaiian Coffees line bringing another original taste of Oahu’s North Shore to the stores fine and varied offerings.

Les Dames d'Escoffier in the Waialua Cacao Orchard

Mike and Derek hosted a special tasting of  Waialua Coffee and Chocolate and a tour of the cacao orchard for some 20  professional business women from Les Dames d’Escoffier Hawaii branch.  Many of those who attended are involved in the Honolulu culinary community as chefs, teachers, managers and owners of food service companies and other fine restaurants and businesses in Hawaii.

What is Les Dames d’Escoffier?  Here is a brief description from the website: http://www.ldei.org/

Les Dames d’Escoffier is the only organization of its kind: a world wide philanthropic society of professional women leaders in the fields of food, fine beverage and hospitality. The invitation-only membership, composed of 27 individual chapters across the United States and Canada, is highly diversified and reflects the multifaceted fields of contemporary gastronomy and hospitality.

Waialua Chocolate Tasting

Tasting chocolate and coffee with this group was a pleasure. We look forward to working with them through educational programs in the culinary schools,  in their restaurants with our Hawaiian coffee and chocolate and with special events in the community.  Aloha, Derek

Mike gives a pointer on Waialua Cacao

Les Dames tasting Waialua Estate Chocolate Bon Appetite!