Port Potager

It’s hard to believe that our trip to Costa Rica was almost two years ago, and even harder to believe that it took me this long to finally make the lip balm I was planning with the ingredients I bought at the cacao plantation we visited .  Though, to be fair, I only just ran out of the lip balm I made over three years ago . Truly, a little goes a long way. Anyway, today I finally gathered my Costa Rican ingredients: achiote and cocoa butter:   This cocoa butter was made by hand by our tour guide Priscilla , so it's unrefined. It still smells good and chocolatey, and the color is tan rather than white: Since cocoa butter is solid at room temperature, I dropped the whole container into some boiling water to melt it: While that was melting, I gathered the rest of my ingredients: beeswax and coconut oil . The proportions here are 1 part beeswax, 2 parts coconut oil, and 2 parts cocoa butter: It all gets melted together and stirred over ve...

While sorting through some photos from Costa Rica, I realized I never shared the last interesting tidbits from our trip to the Bribrí cacao farm  on the Caribbean coast. Before we got into the nitty-gritty of making chocolate, we toured the farm to check out some of the other useful plants that grow there.  First, our guide Priscilla picked a ripe achiote  and broke it open to show us the seeds inside: In English this is known as annatto. When the achiote  skin is leathery and brown, it means that the seeds inside are ready to use. The bright red seeds can be dried and crushed to make a reddish-orange spice that is used in many Mexican and Central America recipes. Priscilla explained that the Bribrí people also used it for painting their skin bright red, for keeping cuts clean, and for soothing a sunburn. Tiegan was happy to give that last use a try, as she had just the day before gotten the worst sunburn of her life: I bought some ground achiote...