Food of the gods

We are preparing to leave a lively farmers’ market in the lush, north-eastern hills recently when our daughter rushes up smiling broadly and bearing in both hands a huge, golden present that she excitedly thrusts at me. Taken aback, I stare rather suspiciously at the oversized, orange, ovoid object and finally admit reluctantly to my equally surprised and openly amused family that I have no idea what to do with it.

As they laugh, I am therefore tempted to tell them all off in local parlance “carry yuh own bag ah cocoa” and warn that this gift must still be green for “when cocoa ripe it mus bus.” I had enough heavy burdens of my own without lugging around another weighty classic, however enticing and glowing,