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If you give a kid a candy bar, he enjoys it for a moment. If you give cocoa mulch to the Unity Gardens in South Bend, you enrich the whole community.

For several years, Davis Chocolate ™ in Mishawaka, Indiana, has donated cocoa hulls to the local non-profit, which turns the shells into nutrient rich natural mulch at its 7-acre open garden on South Bend’s west side.

Master gardener Mitch Yaciw says the cocoa mulch acts as a pre-emergent barrier against weeds and, as it breaks down, the nitrogen in the mulch attracts worms, enriching the soil. (He does note that cocoa mulch can be dangerous to dogs.)

As a youth, Yaciw worked in garden stores and remembers selling cocoa mulch, but said he was unable to find it for sale locally. He met Davis Chocolate president Brent Davis at a fundraising event sponsored by Indulgence Pastry Shop and Café in South Bend.

Just like the fine chocolate made at Davis Chocolate, the right ingredients came together to create something magical.

Davis Chocolate had cocoa hulls – a byproduct of the bean-to-bar chocolate making process – and the Unity Gardens had a way to use them in an environmentally safe way. Even more than enriching the soil, volunteers at the Unity Gardens use cocoa mulch to improve the neighborhood through the cooperative practice of community gardening.

Chocolate comes from cacao trees. The beans (actually seeds) are imported from often volatile regions with little infrastructure, grown by small farmers with few resources. Pressured by the global demand for chocolate and to eek out a meager living, local farmers clear forest lands that once provided shade for the tender cacao trees, to make room for more plantings. ( Sustainable Cocoa Economy, 2007 )

The economic, environmental and social benefits of cocoa production are the interdependent “ three pillars of sustainability .” Each pillar’s strength depends on sustaining and developing the integrity of the other two pillars. To allow cocoa production to satisfy the needs of a growing market, responsible chocolate makers engage in fair trade principles.

Fair Trade USA , with whom Davis Chocolate partners, believes “every purchase matters” and offers chocolate consumers a way to identify quality products that improve the lives of the farmers and protect the environment where cacao trees grow. Producer cooperatives share in the economic benefit of the cocoa trade, empowering the farmers to create positive change in their communities.

This weekend, as part of the citywide 150 th birthday celebration , the Unity Garden will host a Community Cookout and Yaciw will talk on the history of local urban gardening .

The Unity Gardens executive director , Sara Stewart RN MSN, explains the garden is a lure: gathering a diverse group of people to work together and feeding the hungry with their harvest.

Aside from providing a bountiful yield available for all who wish to partake, the Unity Gardens offers gardening classes , cooking and preserving lessons, and summer day camp for kids . The nonprofit trades with local grocers and restaurants, such as South Bend Farmers Market and Javier’s Bistro on Miami Street, and receives support from philanthropic interests, like the Pokagon Fund and Beacon Health ( Memorial Hospital .)

The Community Foundation of St Joseph County also sought to help make the Unity Gardens sustainable. The recent Give Local SJC day provided the Unity Gardens with its largest fundraising event ever; 90 donors raised $47,685 in 24 hours.

Stewart said the kid’s camp is making a difference in the community. The  Memorial Hospital Youth Discovery Project gives kids in the nearby Beacon Heights neighborhood a place of belonging, with supervised activities during the day. The Unity Gardens contributes fresh produce to the summer lunch program offered by the South Bend Parks, and the meals include healthy ingredients harvested by the campers themselves. The effort empowers campers with a sense of purpose and develops self-esteem, as they provide for themselves and their families.

In this way, the Unity Gardens and cocoa mulch from Davis Chocolate contribute to a positive network of accountability locally. Through ethical trading practices in the worldwide cocoa industry and corporate responsibility here at home,  Davis Chocolate is finding ways to craft premium chocolate while closing the loop on sustainability,

A few weekends ago, we invited over a few friends for an evening for fun, for education, and for a delicious sensory experience. After months of requests to learn more about our chocolate hobby, particularly after our friends spent hours listening to us gush about all the nerdy parts involved, we agreed to put on a chocolate-making class for a few of them!

Richard is particularly good at explaining very complicated engineering and scientific concepts to laypeople like me, so he was excited to show off his gear and teach our friends about the complexities of the process. I love to train people and get them to buy into a process, so I was excited to make our chocolate-making relevant and interesting to our friends with such diverse interests. The challenge was on and we were pumped!

Read more about how it went! http://rootchocolate.com/2015/04/14/chocolate-making-classes/

This cake is creamy, buttery and delicious. A touch of sea salt makes it perfect. You can use either Callebaut's Caramel-Flavoured Callets or Valrhona's Caramelia couverture for this recipe: http://ultimatelychocolatecakes.blogspot.ca/2015/04/sea-salted-butter-pecan-caramel.html

After trying SOMA's Roasted White Chocolate Rabbit last week, and discovering that fired-up white chocolate is delicious and tastes like campfire marshshmallows, I was inspired to try this technique in my commercial kitchen. Now SOMA needs not worry about me competing with them anytime soon, but it was certainly fun to pull out the culinary torch and tinge my chocolate eggs. Here are the results: http://ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.ca/2015/03/roasted-white-chocolate-eggs-treat.html .

Chia seeds have been taking off lately as the next big thing in health food trends, and just a few weeks ago a story about Taylor Swift hit the celebrity-news circuit, attributing a recent weight loss to munching on these little seeds.  So here are the details on the seeds and a recipe to give your dark chocolate a fun crunch and a healthy kick: http://ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.ca/2015/03/chia-chocolate-bars-perhaps-chocolate.html .

One of our favorite moments on  Oahu  took place in a traditional Hawaiian establishment in Kailua called  Hale Kealoha , with slack key players on stage, hula dancers called up from the crowd, many bowls of delicious and traditional Hawaiian food on the table, and surrounded on all sides by locals. Two of those locals, Dylan and Tammy, sat across from us and shared both a piece of birthday cake and a lot of knowledge. Dylan is the chocolate-maker and founder of  Manoa Chocolate Hawaii , and Tammy, his fiance, manages the front of the house, the wholesale accounts, and much in between!

Read more here: http://rootchocolate.com/2015/03/16/visiting-manoa-chocolate-hawaii/

Learn to make beautiful truffle-filled eggs for Easter with inexpensive and simple candy & chocolate molds, plus find the recipe for melt-in-your-mouth peanut butter meltaway truffles to fill the eggs. Get the recipe and instructions here: http://ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.ca/2015/03/white-chocolate-peanut-butter-truffle.html .

Sure you could learn to temper chocolate without a thermometer by doing the lip test (kinda gross) or the back of your hand test (still gross), but it isn't always accurate when you are learning.  What I've learned is to just jump to a digital thermometer to get an accurate reading every time and ensure your chocolate really is in temper.  So here is a little advice on choosing a thermometer for tempering chocolate: http://ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.ca/2015/03/digital-thermometers-must-have-when.html .

While on Oahu , Richard and I visited two and a half farms growing cacao. Why the half? Let me explain…

The first farm we visited was Kahuku Farms , on the North Shore. Dr. Nat of Madre recommended we stop by here. Kahuku provides farm tours or, as they call them, smoothie tours. We rode around on a wheeled bench, pulled by a trailer through the rows of beautiful crops in the demonstration portion of the farm and received a delicious homemade smoothie made from the ingredients we had seen just moments before. Our tour guide is married to Kylie, a fourth generation Kahuku farmer and has taken on the education part of the business. We learned a lot about the history of the farm and their attempts to share such fresh and delicious vegetables with the local population. Hawaiian food traditionally includes a lot of meat, but the Kahuku food truck serves only vegetarian foods made from their farm’s produce. Surprisingly to the farming family (but not to us Californian hippies), it’s a huge hit!

Read more about Kahuku Farms and our visits to Lonohana and Waialua Estates, here: http://rootchocolate.com/2015/03/12/cacao-farming-on-oahu/

From weddings to baby showers and from corporate events to milestone anniversaries, party favors have become increasingly popular. They are used to express appreciation to the guests as well as promoting brand visibility and loyalty. According to Chocolate Favors World, "Choosing chocolates as return gifts has become the best way to make a lasting impact. This is on account of the universal fondness of chocolate." Did you know that the worldwide consumption of chocolate was as high as 7.2 million tons in 2009? It is expected to skyrocket to 8.2 million tons by 2020, according to the Statistics Portal Statista . Once you have decided on chocolate as a great option, there are several things you may wish to consider to arrive at the final decision.

Making the Right Decision with Chocolate Favors

Shape:  Chocolates are available in a large variety of shapes and sizes. You can make the choice depending on the occasion. For instance, if it's a Christmas party, you could get favors in shapes of Santa, a star or even a reindeer. For weddings, heart shaped chocolates or ones with wedding bells could be ideal. The decision could depend on the gathering. If it's a corporate setting and guests would comprise of employees or clients, you may wish to opt for simpler designs like squares and bars, as this will showcase your logo better. In case you wish to have a theme party, the shape could be chosen accordingly. For instance, if you are having a casino themed partly, you could opt for chocolate poker chips, which are easily available online. In fact, you would be surprised at the array of shapes available, including different fruits, puzzle pieces, champagne bottles and even bandages!

Taste: You would want your guests to savor the chocolates and remember you fondly. Since taste is such a critical part of your favor, opt for Belgian chocolate. If you wish to add an exquisite touch, you could choose dark chocolate, although milk chocolate is more popular, especially among kids.

Customization: The wrapper as well as the chocolate can have some artwork. For instance, if it is a corporate event, you could have the company logo and tagline on the wrapper and the chocolate.

Packaging: Often ignored, packaging can add to the novelty of your return gift. Apart from the chocolate wrapper having some artwork to depict the theme of the party, you could opt for the favors to be placed in colorful organza bags with matching ribbons or a transparent box. If you have chosen a unique shape, ensure that it can be seen through the packaging.