Amateur Gardening – 10 July 2019

Gardening’s king of trivia and brain-teasers, Graham Clarke

THE cocoa tree (Theobroma cacao) is

native to the Amazon and Orinoco

river basins in South America,

where it is always warm and

humid. Cocoa beans, the main

ingredient of chocolate, are the

seeds found within the tree’s fruit

pods. Each pod is about the same

size as a papaya, and contains up

to 50 sour seeds. The beans are

harvested, fermented, dried, roasted or

grilled, cleaned and then ground down before the

cocoa liquor is extracted.

Today, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria (Africa),

Indonesia (Asia) and Brazil (South America) grow

80% of the world’s cocoa.

5

plants containing the names

of Cadbury chocolate brands

Boost – Hemerocallis

‘Rocket Booster

Flake – Hosta ‘Snow Flakes’

Chocolate almonds

It grows on trees!

Delectable chocolate

Find out what chocolate has got to do with plants and gardening

This

week

it’s:

All photography Alamy / Wikicommons / TI Media, unless otherwise credited

IN common with millions of others, when

it comes to weight control chocolate is

my downfall. It started when I was a child

and was first introduced to a ‘square’ of

Cadbury’s milk chocolate... I can’t even

escape it in the garden, as we shall see!

This Sunday (7 July) is World

Chocolate Day – dedicated to all things

cocoa-based. It is brave to hold it

on a summer’s day for, as we all know,

chocolate melts at a temperature just

less than that of skin, let alone when

in sunshine (we should be so lucky).

We’ll just have to eat it faster! Let’s look

at some of the connections chocolate

has with plants and gardening. Chocolate choice: white, milk or dark

Turkish Delight – Delphinium

‘Turkish Delight’

THERE are three main varieties of cocoa

tree (or bean):

Criollo: the beans are fragrant with

a nutty flavour, making the best

chocolate. They grow in Central

and South America, but they are

delicate and demanding – which

is why the best chocolate is also

the most expensive.

Forastero: (pictured) far more

abundant, because they are easier to

grow and less demanding. Although they lack the aroma and

delicacy of the criollo, they account for some 90% of the

world’s chocolate production.

Trinitario: a hybrid of the above, these are a good compromise.

They are prolific, sturdy and produce flavourful beans.

It’s all about the beans

) is

harvested, fermented, dried, roasted or

It grows on trees!

THERE

tree (or bean):

a nutty flavour, making the best

chocolate. They grow in Central

and South America, but they are

delicate and demanding – which

is why the best chocolate is also

the most expensive.

abundant, because they are easier to

are three main varieties of cocoa

abundant, because they are easier to

strictlydaylilies.com

Blackmore and Langdon

Remember 8 July – National

Chocolate with Almonds Day

THIS Sunday may be World Chocolate

Day, but on Monday 8 July some parts

of America will be celebrating National

Chocolate with Almonds Day! But

Americans will have to wait until

7 November for National Chocolate

with Bitter Almonds Day!

The Compleat Housewife or

Accomplish’d Gentlewoman’s

Companion by Eliza Smith is a cookery

book first published in London in 1727.

It became extremely popular, with some

18 editions over 50 years. ‘Chocolate

almonds’ was the only chocolate recipe

in it, despite the popularity of chocolate

among the wealthy at the time.

6 JULY 2019AMATEUR GARDENING 45

Curly Wurly – Ligustrum lucidum

‘Curly Wurly’

Turkish Delight – Papaver

orientale ‘Turkish Delight’