Making History in Singapore As We Plant Cocoa Tree Islandwide With Janice Wong
A name that everyone would probably be familiar with, especially in the culinary industry, Singapore’s multi-award-winning chef — Janice Wong, who is well known for representing Singapore in countless global television food shows, events, and competitions has recently embarked on a quest. For the first time ever, Singapore will be home to a true tree-to-bar chocolate experience — an initiative spearheaded by Janice Wong and her team, who aim to plant 1,000 trees across the island.
In collaboration with Janice Wong and The Culinary Institute of America (CIA), the team at Insect Feed Technologies is honoured to be part of this project where we are able to contribute our very own Black Soldier Fly Organic Fertiliser (Frass) to the growth of cocoa trees.
Planting Cocoa Trees
When we first arrived at the campus, safety briefings were held for the volunteers and the students before we headed to the field. We were tasked to group ourselves in a team of five to plant as many trees as we possibly could in the grass field. Everyone on the team would then head to collect their selection of cocoa trees and proceed to the grass field.
The holes in the grass field were kindly dug by the students a few days back before the planting of cocoa trees. Before we get into the dirty work, everyone has gathered around and once again briefed on the steps and points that we should take note of while replanting the cocoa trees. We were told to take note of the depth level of planting the cocoa trees and make sure that we do not plant them too deep into the ground to avoid them not being able to get enough of their natural sources such as soil nutrients, sun, and more.
After the briefing, we proceed to our very own groups to start with the planting of cocoa trees and the very first step to start it off is to fill the dug holes with potting soil at least a half-filled level.