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Monks and members are invited to a private tour of a chocolate farm

Will Lydgate is the inspiration/owner and he gave such an information-rich introduction.

We arrived at 4pm and were greeting Hawaiian style, so gracious

Sadasivanathaswami brought some plant gifts for their grounds and a large garland.

Will told of the history of the farm and its long relationship with the monastery. There was a rich tasting of several varieties of chocolate that they make. Seems they were awarded Best in the World in a Paris exhibition. Turns out it’s quite an art to make at this level.

Next we are off to walk among the trees. here Will opens a fruit to show us the seeds inside. Most fruits are yellow, some are maroon red.

Like this one. They cross-pollinate easily so most are hybrids.

The white flesh surrounding the seeds (about 54 in each pod) taste quite nice and are used for making goodies and popsicles.

Trekking through the trees. The one on the right is 3 years old.

Next Will takes us into the extensive vanilla shade houses. Hundreds of vines.

Kailey Carlson is in charge of the growing of cacao and vanilla, and shows us their operation. It’s labor intensive., as each vanilla flower must be pollinated by hand on the day it opens, and it closes before noon!

They sometimes pollinate 3,000 flowers in a morning.

Next we are off to see shere beans are fermented and dried.

It reminds us of similar coffee farms we have visited.

WThese are the beans after fermentation. Cacao beans are referred to as “nibs” after they have been harvested, fermented, dried, roasted, and then cracked into smaller pieces. These pieces are the pure, edible part of the cacao bean, with the outer husk removed (husks are intact in this photo)

The fermentation bins where a few hundred pounds of beans are placed for a couple of days. It is this fermentation that does the magic with taste and texture.

Two days back monks and members were invited by the team at Lydgate Farm to take a private afternoon tour, complete with tasting of chocolates of various varieties and their own home-made popsicles. We take you with us on the tour which was a master class in chocolate making and a delightful connection with our friends and neighbors who run the farm. The Lydgates have a long history on the island, and Will is continuing their leadership in the community, creating an awesome model for ag production and tours. Thank you, Will, and to Ryan and Kailey too.

In the short video below, Will Lydgate gives an introduction to the farm and his vision.

A brand new home page

Access to our Audio Books

A new page where users can explore and listen Gurudeva’s and Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami’s talks

A brand new page for our Iraivan Temple

Our new TAKA page

Easy-to-find information for our many pilgrims and guests visiting the Aadheenam

An upgraded books gallery where you can search by title, category, language and author

Jai Ganesha!

On the most auspicious day of Vinayagar Chaturthi, we launched our brand new website for Kauai’s Hindu Monastery. It’s now live for the world and includes a more intuitive navigation, a comprehensive search, an attractive design, as easy access to our many books, publications and guru upadeshas, and all the many important pages for site visitors such as information about the monastery, our temples and Hinduism overall. As you can see this post is on this new website. There are still, however, several functionalities that need need to be completed, such as the Taka archives and access to our collections of bhajan and Sanskrit audio.

For the past few years Tillainathaswami has been gradually working to build the website bit by bit. Over the past few months, along with the help of Kodiswara, Swami has been working actively to complete the website and bring it to the world. After this long-awaited release, the monastics here, as well an many people who have written in about, are all really enjoying the website’s new look and feel and the ease of access to content. As of now the website’s base structure has been completed and as time goes by we will support it and implement innovations and upgrades. Don’t forget to check out all the sub-menus and explore the website even deeper. FYI: for the time being Taka will be only available from as far back as Guru Purnima 2024 up to the current day. We are still working to implement the Taka archives on the website. Hope everyone enjoys this brand new digital landscape! Jai Ganesha!