A week in Grenada with Mott Green

Mott Heads up The Grenada Chocolate Company which produces single origin 'tree-to-bar' chocolate in hand made batches.

I think anyone watching me right now would wonder what I am doing.  I’ve started this diary entry a dozen times or more and metaphorically there is a bin in the corner full of scrunched up balls of paper after dozens of first attempts at opening this dairy post.

It was through Chantal Coady of Rococo Chocolates that I was introduced to Mott Green of the Grenada Chocolate Company and I was invited, along side one of my all time favorite writers Xanthe Clay, to spend a week finding out more about The Grenada Chocolate Company, and the Tres Hombres ship that is now on it’s way back to the UK with 50,000 bars of chocolate on board.  As I'm sitting here thinking back, the week was so incredible I actually don’t know where to start. I thought about writing everything up like a day-by-day journal starting at the beginning, but really I want to write about the way this trip to Grenada has affected me.

Meeting the Farmers and Edmond Brown who grow the Cocoa and the crew who sail it back to the UK 

I flew to Grenada last Monday with Xanthe Clay who writes for the Telegraph.  Xanthe's articles are so beautifully written. Her words always transport me to wherever she is in the world and I have always loved her writing style. The way she weaves atmosphere and romance in her features without forgetting the practical aspects of cooking makes her a brilliant writer. She also has magical ability to include lots of information whilst keeping up a good pace, but what I like best of all is that she is a mother and a wife and she chats about family life, giving a wonderful warm human aspect to her work, and her recipes consistently translate to real life. We’d met a few times out and about but I was nervous all the same.  I hoped so much that she would like me. In real life she is equally fabulous as her column.  She is really one of the most adventurous fun and inspirational women I have ever met, and I know perhaps Xanthe is laughing and blushing if she is reading these words..  but forgive my honesty.  I am writing from my heart and speaking the truth as it is.

Since I came back from meeting Lulu Sturdy and spending time at Ndali Vanilla in Uganda I’ve been trying to find the answer to that little voice whispering to me that something more has to be possible here. Perhaps it was stepping away from my identity as a wife, mother, and daughter that meant I tuned in to the people around me, but I have come back from Grenada not only bringing back with me spices and Rum, but clarity and purpose.

Everything on Grenada was intense. The food tasted more delicious, the music sounded more soulful.  It was as thought some one turned up the volume in the world. The heat, the flavors, the sounds; and now that I’m home I know that the people I met on that beautiful little island will have a played a part in changing the way I see things forever.

Grenada itself has an easy laid back appeal.  People wave. People smile and people take the time to say hello and how are you.  It’s a beautiful place, but more than that, it’s got really lovely people.  People that make you feel welcome and having been let loose on the Island to explore ourselves I found myself stopping at the side of the road, chatting to fishermen, photographing laughing children and eating amazing food.  It’s an extraordinary place.

Time to consider life. 

It is on this Island, where the Caribbean see meets the Atlantic ocean, the spices and cocoa trees grown in fertile volcanic soil in the warn tropical sunshine, that there is a revolution is happening.  This is where the very best fair working practices happen and the farmers and workers benefit from the chocolate being made just a few minutes away from here it is grown. It is here that the Tres Hombres and her crew moor their beautiful cargo ship, and load the chocolate into the cargo hold.  It is this synergy between people, beliefs and possibility quite literally set my core on fire

Mott Green is the man behind the Grenada chocolate.  He is a shrewd 46 year old year  NewYorker, with intense blue eyes, clear vision of what is right, achievable and fair; with insatiable energy he has teamed up with the Tres Hombres fair transport cargo vessel.  The fit is perfect; with a natural synergy between Motts cooperatively produced artisanal hand crafted chocolate bars and Captain of Arjan’s principles of fair transport on the Tres Hombres ship.   

When I asked Captain Arjen van der Veen about his dream of making the world a better place through fair food and fair transport he looked straight at me and with easy humour he pointed out the obvious.  “This is not how it could be.  This is how it is.  We are doing it right now.  This is my life and it’s real.”  

In that moment I felt as though I’d been handed the picture to a puzzle I’ve been trying to solve for an age. I’ve quite literally had the pieces all along but not been able to see how to put it together.

Literally as I am typing this, at this very moment in time, the chocolate I saw being made is being sailed back to Portsmouth by Captain Arjen, Mott and the crew.  The chocolate is maturing and developing it’s fruity, textured rich dark sweet flavour, so it for me to step out of my conventional self, stop dreaming and do as Arjen and Mott.  So now it is time for me to really trust my beliefs fully, without questioning, without hesitation.

The cocoa grows on small farms in the rainforest, protected by nutmeg, banana and mango trees.

Seeing a clear view of the world through other people’s eyes I saw myself properly. Vanessa, just as I am. For the first time in years I actually liked what I saw, and I suddenly stopped feeling like I wasn’t good enough.   This wasn’t just a fluke anymore. Call it kismet if you like but to find myself with the opportunity to meet the people challenging convention I‘ve realized that I can make a difference. It was listening to Arjen and Mott when I realised that it’s not a dream it’s just what you do when you believe in something. Both Mott and Arjen live life according to their beliefs and convictions  -   it is an amazing way to live and I want to do the same. 

I thought back at where I was less than three years ago, feeling domestically trapped, in a job I no longer wanted to do, with three young children demanding every ounce of my energy.  I was miserable and yes I determined to follow my heart and change direction. I think meeting Mott has finally made me release that I may actually have almost achieved what I set out to.. and now there is more. Now there is the real chance to not only live the principles of an ethical and sustainable lifestyle but to incorporate those principles into my work and so I’ve decided to fully incorporate these core values into the courses I teach and to change this blog’s name to reflect what is my privilege; to spread the word about how to eat, grow, buy delicious, ethical and sustainable food and flowers, without compromise.

You can buy some of this beautiful dark organic chocolate in Waitrose or at Rococo Chocolates. 

2nd June 2013 - Addendum 

It is with absolute sadness and shock that I add to this post that Mott died tragically in an accident yesterday.  I am absolutely heartbroken. As I write this now with tears streaming and I am, for once in my life, grateful to my propensity to blurt how I feel as I explained to Mott just two weeks ago on baord the Tres Hombres just what a profound effect that he has had on me.

Chantal Coady friend of Motts for many years and owner of Rococo Chocolates has written a beautiful tribute to Mott on her blog.

The interview I had with him is below.  Rest in peace Mott, for I believe with all my heart that you have changed the world of chocolate forever.

listen to ‘Grenadian Chocolate Mott Green’ on Audioboo

Captain Arjen Van der Veer of the Tres Hombres has a cargo of 50,000 hand wrapped bars of  delicious dark organic chocolate destined for Portsmouth. 

 

The Contented Cook

Xanthe Clay's Spanish Canas.  
Photograph by Tara Fisher from The Contented Cook, Kyle Books

I spent yesterday packaging vanilla powder for the vanilla gift swap.  The smell takes me straight back to Uganda and the Ndali processing house. I realised that I couldn't take everyone I knew to Uganda .. but I could bring something back here instead.  I am so excited about the vanilla gift swap and I love bringing twitter and blogging into real life.  Seeing people laughing and suddenly meeting someone who they've been chatting with for months in person is just such fun and I have been busy making sweet yellow plums into french soft set jam with just a whisper of that seductive vanilla in it. 

It is my favorite time of year. There is bright September sunshine outside and the glory of summer has faded.  Occasionally I almost forget that we haven’t really had a summer. The only things that did well in my garden this year have been the herbs, the strawberries and the salad.  The rest has suffered with the whether.  Now the vegetable garden needs tending to and my house needs a good tidy after the summer holidays.  I suppose an untidy house is to be expected with three children vs one working mother. Never doubt that behind the scenes of domestic bliss I am peddling like mad to keep afloat.

Last night my husband lit the first fire. Walking across the garden wafts of pine wood smoke drifted. It is autumn and an evening indulging in new cookery books promised.  With the chickens shut away, and the days freshly laid eggs collected I curled up on the sofa to read some of the books that have landed on my doormat in the past few weeks. I have to admit that I feel a little guilty at indulging when there is so much to do, nevertheless I read on, listening to the fire crackle.  

Food writer and Telegraph journalist Xanthe Clay's new book The Contented Cook is exactly the kind of book I can just lose myself in.  The photographs are just beautiful, and the recipes are practical. For someone who has many cookbooks I find often find myself lost in deciding what to cook, but not with this one.  I wanted to cook everything.  You see the recipes in the book are practical in every sense of the word.  They are as you would expect from Xanthe well thought out and in a sensible order, but there is more than that.  It’s classily perfectly written to make me feel I can and will cook from it. I earmark the Hot and Sour Noodle Soup, the Squishy Almond cake and the Pan-fried Onglet with Fennel Seed Roast Potatoes.

As I read I am romanced.  Recipes have an almost therapeutic effect on me and I find myself  thinking that I need to remember that my children will not look back on their childhood and marvel at how clean the kitchen floor used to be… or how tidy the sitting room was.  They will remember the smells of baking, the laughter as we sit at the table and the feeling of warmth as they come home from school with their pockets full of conkers and the treats they ate whilst swapping stories about their day.  So I  shall make the  Spanish Canas for the children this evening and I’ve invited friends for supper later in the week so I’ve ordered the Onglet from my local butcher. 

As the fire glows I wonder how perfect moments happen.  They are like dreams hard to pin down and impossible  rarely but somehow whenever they do there always seems to be food about and there is contentment wherever there is food, and so the title Xanthes book rings so true.  

Here is the recipe for Xanthe’s Cañas

Cañas

The Spanish chef and restaurateur José Pizarro’s parents, whom I was lucky enough to meet, are both in their seventies and still tend a smallholding of 20 hectares. Señora Pizarro fed me on her homemade cañas, crisp curls of flaky cinnamon-scented pastry, which melt richly in the mouth. Gorgeous with coffee or the hot chocolate on page 207.

Makes about 20

125ml olive oil, plus extra for deep-frying

Zest of ½ orange

375g plain flour

125ml white wine

125g caster sugar mixed with 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Heat the oil and the orange zest gently in a small pan for 5 minutes.

Put the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the middle. Pour in the hot oil and stir to mix. Add the white wine and mix again. Knead the dough lightly to make a soft, silky, but not sticky dough.

Roll out the dough to a thickness of about 3mm. Cut it in strips 15cm long and 4cm wide.

Heat oil in a pan or wok to a depth of about 5cm (ensure the pan is no more than half full) to 185°C or until a scrap of the dough browns in about 1½ minutes.

Take a cream horn mould or a 12cm length of stainless steel tube, about 3cm in diameter and wrap a strip of dough around it in a spiral. Put the whole wrapped mould into the hot oil and allow to sizzle for 10 seconds, or until the dough has stiffened and turned pale. With tongs, carefully pull out the metal mould, allowing the spiral of dough to slide back into the oil. Cook for a further minute or so until deep golden.

Carefully lift the spiral out of the oil and drain on kitchen paper. While still warm, dust with the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

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Please note that the both  recipe and photograph shown have been reproduced with full permission from the publisher.