The Carter family is committed to growing organically, stewarding land responsibly, and engaging creatively with local communities – from seed to bar.
We are happy to offer seed-to-bar chocolate! Carters’ Chocolate is from cacao that is organically raised and part of a regenerative system of tropical hardwoods in Guatemala. Other locally-sourced cacao is raised by the Mayan Q’ekchi communities as part of an effort to improve the soil and productivity of steeply sloping hillsides, working with the contour lines of the landscape.
Those who buy Carters’ Chocolate are helping the health of indigenous communities and their land. Carters’ offers chocolate you can trust, from seed to bar. We are starting by offering 65% cacao bars. Soon, we will be offering 60% and our standard 70% bars. Find them now at the Red Barn in Park Rapids, MN!
What is ‘Seed to Bar?’
Frutas del Mundo, owned by Dwight Carter of Park Rapids, has devoted a good share to nursery production of many tropical fruit tree species. One of the more important of these, both for the volume and for the social impact in the communities that plant the trees, is cacao. Since it is a plant nursery, they start with seeds selected from the heartiest of cacao plants, and seed them in sand germination boxes, and then transplant them into bags to be grown out to become rootstock for grafting. To procure the budwood that is needed
for grafting, a clonal garden is maintained of the best varieties of cacao. It is from this garden that a good share of the cacao pods are used to make the chocolate. Once the pods are ripe, they are gathered and cracked open to take out the ‘baba’, the juicy fruit and seeds. The baba is placed in wooden vats that are lined with banana leaves and a 5-7 day fermentation process takes place. This requires great care and experience to be done properly. When the cacao has been properly fermented it can be carefully dried in the sun. This requires special wooden drying racks and coverings. At 5-7% moisture we finally have what is traditionally referred to as “cacao beans”. It is from these that what has been called ‘bean to bar’ chocolate is made.
It is especially satisfying to be able to watch cacao from before it has sprouted to the
time it becomes a tasty chocolate.
At Carters’, we’ve always known how important it is to know where food comes from and how it comes to us, and we cherish every opportunity we can to cultivate that closeness between the soil where the seed is sown, the farmer that harvests the fruit, and the friends who enjoy the harvest together.
Watch for opportunities to taste this chocolate, and to learn more about how it is grown and made. Currently, we offer chocolate at the Walker and Park Rapids Farmers’ Market in the summer. If you’re business is interested in offering Carters’ Chocolate, please contact us @cartersfarmpr@gmail.com.
Dwight Carter, who also stewards the Carter farm in Park Rapids, Minnesota, has owned a fruit farm and nursery in Guatemala for over thirty years.
A Family Farm in Minnesota's Heartland 