Dallas Chocolate Festival

 

The Dallas Chocolate Festival is here again.  This is the 11th annual event and also marks the second year of growth for my largest cacao tree, currently topping five feet high.

The festivities start tomorrow and, although it's too late to get the chocolate box, it's sure to be an interesting event for anyone who wants to know more about chocolate.

Speaking of the tree, the office move is coming next week and the tree move is imminent.  Time to get the cling wrap ready and my trusty moving assistant (my wife) so that our plants don't get too stressed on the way over.  My boss generously offered the back of his truck as a means of transportation not thinking of how delicate moving a plant can be.  It would get too banged up back there for it to survive the trip.  Some of the other plants might be needing new homes soon since I'm not sure where I will be able to put them all.

Cacao to the Festival

In two days we're going to the VIP party for the Dallas Chocolate Festival!  It's a fun place with more chocolate than you should reasonably eat in the few hours we'll be there.

Sander has suggested I can see if the Fine Chocolate Industry Association might want it at their table as a conversation starter.  I'm thinking they might.  Of course it's only to baby sit it for a little while.

Currently she's nearly 28-inches tall and growing pretty fast these days.  There are two new leaves forming up top and that usually prompts another growth spurt.  In the wild these will easily get 30-feet tall if not 40 or 50.  Of course inside the max height I can let her get is 7 feet (plus 1-foot for the pot).

Little sister is coming along too since I still haven't had the opportunity to repot them yet.  It will give a good example of needing to space them out if you want them to grow well.

Continued Cacao Growth

The cacao trees are still growing and really leafing out well.  I keep telling people I'm going to repot the plants soon but still haven't gotten around to it yet.

These trees of course are still the same trees that I started from seeds late mid last year from seeds collected from a fresh cacao pod I received from Sander Wolf from the Dallas Chocolate Festival.  We had the privilege of helping out with the festival last year and hope to be able to do the same this year.  After the festival though last year Sander was giving some of us the cacao pods that were used as decoration at the festival and of course I couldn't pass that up.

This year marks 10 years of the Dallas Chocolae Festival which will be held September 7 & 8 with a VIP party on September 6.  Tickets will be on sale starting August 1.

This year, being a milestone, they are holding an anniversary dinner commemorating the original chocolate dinner where "seeds" of the Dallas Chocolate Festival were first planted.  Thinking about taking these lovely plants back to the event to show just how much they can grow in just a year.  The event has grown so much since the first time we attended.