Cocoa Beans.

Food is good.

Food is so good.

I recently went a day without.  

Longer than a day, even.  36 hours.  I was aiming for 48.

Why?  Lots of reasons.

We are in a precarious life-stage and fasting helps me think clearly.

I've had a recent resurgence of a health issue that makes certain delicious and beloved food groups off-limits (sugar, bread, dairy).  Makes me want to pout and throw the towel in on all food.

Mireille says it's good for you.

But in those last hours, somewhere between the headache and the full-body weakness I thought, 'Why am I doing this again?'

My kid drew a face in the nib bowl with his finger and said, 'look mom it's me made out of chocolate!'

So I had some potato chips.  And, like the return of the Nile flooding the farmland of Egypt, all my faculties were back again.

Food is good.  It just is.  All food is.  Vegetables and fats and meats and cheese and fruit, sweet, fresh fruit.  Just get the best quality you can and trust your body.

Don't let anyone tell you any different.

I am experimenting with bean-to-bar chocolate now.  It's quite a process.  The beans need to be fermented, roasted, hulled, cracked (that's where these pictures are at), and processed.  Squished down and their fat/juice squeezed out of them (delicious cocoa butter), then added back until you get the flavor and texture you want.

I think I'm going to like mine rough.

More on this project to come.  It will be good news, the remainder of my quickly evaporating, fast-induced intuition is telling me so.