Pictures of African Cocoa Farming: Cocoa Drier--Construction (9)

Friday, October 1, 2010

Cocoa Drier--Construction (9)

These pictures are the property of Tom Neuhaus. You may use each as displayed on this site for free; please attribute the source (Tom Neuhaus, Project Hope and Fairness). For higher resolution, you can purchase the original for $5. To do this, visit www.projecthopeandfairness.org and click the Donate button. Donate $5 per picture and then email me (tom@projecthopeandfairness.org) what pictures you want and I will send them back to you. Thank you in advance for donating cocoa farming tools to West African cocoa farmers by purchasing a picture.

Or, a yummy way to help the West African cocoa farmer is to purchase chocolate from , Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates. Or, visit Splash Cafe. Splash Cafe and its sister business, Splash Cafe Artisan Bakery donate at least $2500 every summer to Project Hope and Fairness and make the trips possible.

These pictures detail an attempt at building a solar-powered cocoa drier. The basic design was as follows: five drawers lined with screen door screen held the wet beans. The entire piece of furniture was covered with plastic stapled to the wood frame. A solar-powered fan sucked cool air from the bottom up through the beans and out the top. As the air rose, it was heated by the sun, which caused the relative humidity to drop and therefore caused the off-gassing of moisture from the beans. Even with the sun gone down, the residual heat of the day caused a vacuum at the top to draw air up through the beans.

The piece of furniture was built with a plane, a hammer, a saw, and some bent nails.

1) IMG_4053.jpg

I purchased this solar-powered attic fan and suggested to the carpenters that the drier might resemble this pantry. Ebekawopa, Ghana, 2008.

2) IMG_4056.jpg

These two planks were brought up this path by two carpenters riding bikes from a village about 3 miles away. The path is rutted and steep in some areas. Ebekawopa, Ghana, 2008.