Story
The Anamalai Farm is a cocoa, coconut, and nutmeg farm located near the town of Pollachi, in a region famous throughout India for its high quality coconuts. The entire area, located at the southernmost foothills of India’s Western Ghats, is covered in coconut plantations. Harish Manoj and Karthi Palaniswamy, who own and operate Anamalai, have intercropped their own coconut palms with cocoa and nutmeg trees to diversify and keep the land healthy. They manage their water use with drip irrigation and keep a small herd of cows for weeding and manure compost. The cocoa is fermented in 5 tiers of wood boxes and sun dried on raised beds. While the majority of the harvest is processed for export, a small portion goes to Harish and Karthi’s local line of bean to bar chocolates, which they are producing to keep up with India’s growing demand for craft chocolate.
