Have you ever wondered if you could grow your own cacao tree—and eventually make chocolate from cacao grown in your own backyard?

Growing Cacao Trees is a practical, illustrated 51-page digital e-book based on Jason Pepe’s hands-on experience growing cacao in South Florida. Written for backyard growers, tropical-fruit enthusiasts, and anyone fascinated by the journey from cacao tree to chocolate, this guide explains the process in straightforward, practical language.

Jason combines more than 30 years of South Florida fruit-growing experience with lessons learned from cultivating cacao in his own Davie, Florida backyard. The book also shares his Cuban roots, the cacao traditions of Cuba and the Caribbean, and the influence of his uncle Felipe, a Cuban guajiro who grew cacao, tobacco, plantains, and other crops from the land.

🌱 What You'll Learn

• How to create the right microclimate, shade, and wind protection

• Soil preparation, drainage, mulching, and nutrition

• How to select and properly plant cacao trees

• Growing cacao from fresh seed

• Grafting and other propagation techniques

• Understanding Criollo, Forastero, Trinitario, and selected cacao material

• Cacao flowers, pollination, and improving your chances of pod production

• Pruning and maintaining manageable backyard trees

• Watering and seasonal care

• Protecting cacao from cold, wind, pests, and diseases

• Recognizing and harvesting ripe cacao pods

• Opening pods and preparing fresh cacao beans

• Small-batch cacao fermentation

• Drying and storing fermented beans

• Roasting, cracking, winnowing, and grinding cacao

• The basics of turning your homegrown cacao into homemade chocolate

• A South Florida cacao growing calendar

• Troubleshooting common cacao-growing problems

• Jason’s practical backyard cacao lessons

🍫 From Tree to Chocolate

Growing the tree is only the beginning.

The guide follows cacao beyond the harvest and introduces the fascinating process of fermentation, drying, roasting, winnowing, grinding, refining, and tempering—helping you understand how the seeds inside a cacao pod eventually become chocolate.

🌴 Written for South Florida—Useful Beyond Florida

The guide focuses on the unique challenges of growing cacao in South Florida, including intense sun, sandy soils, summer rainfall, hurricanes, occasional cold weather, and the importance of creating a protected tropical microclimate.

Growers in other warm areas of the United States can also use the guide to understand what cacao requires and how containers, greenhouses, protected locations, and winter protection may make growing this tropical tree possible.

📖 A Personal Cacao Story

This isn't just a technical growing manual. Jason shares the connection between his South Florida cacao trees and his family's Cuban heritage, including the story of his Uncle Felipe, traditional Cuban agriculture, and the cacao-growing history of Cuba, Baracoa, and the Caribbean.

It is a story that begins in the Caribbean and continues in a South Florida backyard.

51-page illustrated digital e-book (PDF)
Instant digital download — no physical book will be shipped.

By Jason Pepe
Pepe’s Fruit Trees — Davie, Florida
30+ Years of South Florida Growing Experience

Grow the tree. Harvest the pod. Make your own chocolate.

Grow Something Delicious!