AWACS - An American With A Chinese System
Copyright© 2025 by PT Brainum
Chapter 41
I got invited to Angie’s house for dinner, meeting her husband Tom and two kids. I got to hear more about the cocoa and coffee business. When they explained that it took around 6 years for the cocoa tree to start producing, I asked if they had any extra seeds to plant.
They did, so I bought enough for my 2 acre farm. I had an idea of what I wanted to do tomorrow.
I was up early Monday. After checking messages, with no one trying to reach me, and my morning routine I headed to YouTube to watch an hour worth of instructional videos on running a digger.
Then I spent an hour watching a video on planting and plowing by hand.
Feeling somewhat proficient, thanks to the skill, I headed down the mountain. Starting up the digger was easy enough, and I moved it to the farm, using the wide but narrow blade at the front of the tracks to scrape away the brush. Where there were trees or big bushes that were too big, I swung the backhoe arm around and pulled them out.
I had a nice pile pushed out into the brush of the southern empty lot next door, and a dark rich volcanic soil exposed. Before I got started, I converted everything I could to neutral points as I ate a couple bars for lunch. With my bag of seeds at hand, and my old plow in hand, I used my knife skill to finely cut the ground everywhere I planned on plowing and planting. I figured that way I only had to cut thru old roots with my plow.
It took an hour at a rather high level of strength doubling to push the plow thru the ground and plant roots. I had my speed turned up also, which assisted, especially with dropping the seeds where they needed to go. The final step was going back over with a rake to cover over the seeds.
I kept my head down as I worked, I could tell the trees were already coming up as I raked. I got to the end of the zig zag course, looking up in wonder as the last seeds sprouted up. I looked over where I had begun and the tree there was at fifteen feet tall, and all the many pods on it were bright yellowish red, and getting darker as I watched.
There was plenty of room around the trees. I had read on wiki farmer that cocoa did best long term at about 14 feet apart in a plantation setting. I was sure that Angie’s husband Tom was going to tell me I needed to plant a windbreak to protect the trees, but I had a great idea for that. It would just have to wait for my ordered pine seeds to ship.
I texted Angie and asked her if Tom could come to my farm to help me harvest my cocoa.
She just replied: lol
Seriously, they grew, and are ready for harvesting
There was no reply, and I wondered if she thought it was a prank.
I drove the digger back to its spot. Pausing along the way to refill its tank. I hadn’t used much, but wanted it full and ready to go for the next guy.
Tom drove up as I was getting out of the digger.
“Hey Crazy, Angie said that you were drunk.”
I pointed to the field, “I’ve planted those seeds you sold me, but don’t know how to harvest them.”
He looked over, then stood on top of the ATV to get a better look. I caught him as he started to slip and fall off, setting him back down on the ATV seat.
“What the hell?”
“I’ve got a green thumb?”
“You’re the damn Jolly Green Giant!”
I summoned one of my beers, popped the top and handed it to him. He took a couple gulps and burped.
“Now once ready for harvest, how long do we have to pick the cocoa?”
“We have time, but I’ll need to get my harvesting knives, and the trailer.”
He rode over to the field, and checked out the bright red pods. He shook one, then scraped the peel, looking at the color underneath.
“It’s definitely ripe and ready for harvest,” he said. Getting back on his ATV he drove down to the building that Angie had driven by the day before. He was back in about fifteen minutes pulling a trailer.
“These have a good six years of growth on them,” he told me, handing me a knife with a significant curve to it.
“Grab the pod like this, and then cut the stem, and set it in the trailer,” he demonstrated. Then he showed me how he would use the same knife on a pole to get the higher ones.
About an hour into the harvest Angie showed up with one of her boys, and spent about five minutes cussing the Crazy American, and his crazy damn forest. Then she got to work harvesting too.
We kept working for a couple hours before taking a break, while young Paul kept us supplied with water, and helped Angie unload the trailer every time we filled it.
“So what’s your plan with the harvest?” Tom asked.
“I’ll give it to you. I don’t know what to do with it.”
“I’ll process it for you, and we can put it in the store. I’ll split the profit with you.”
“Here’s a question, if I sold you this field, what percentage of your chocolate company could I get?”
“If you did the same thing to the field next to it, and left future management to me, I’d give you 30% of the company.”
“How many cocoa trees do you have now?”
“Forty that are producing. A hundred that are still not old enough.”
“One advantage of having me as a partner is that your crops will grow four times faster.”
“Seriously? How is that even possible?”
“I have no idea, call it karma,” I joked.
He laughed, “How much do you want of the company, because I’ve got up to twenty acres I can have you put into production.”
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