By Jan Jacobson

Joe Whinney

Joe Whinney

Chocolate! It is certainly the most important food group for many of us. In February, the Orcas Island Garden Club members are thinking about Valentine’s Day, chocolate and the growing season  fast approaching.The Garden Club will present Joe Whinney, founder of  Seattle-based Theo Chocolate, at the meeting on February 20, 2013, at 10 a.m.

Mr. Whinney fell in love with cacao as a tree as well as the people who grow it and then pioneered the organic chocolate market in 1994. Joe will bring us a story of tastes, and tales of a chocolate adventure unlike any you have hard before. Theo Chocolate is the only organic and fair trade certified bean- to- bar chocolate maker in North America.

The company makes mouth watering, award-winning chocolate. The cocoa beans are purchased direct from farmers, or growing cooperatives, from the Republic of Congo, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Peru and are Fair Trade and Fair for Life.

Fair for Life is a brand-neutral, third-party certification program for social accountability & fair trade in agriculture. Fair Trade practices assure just compensation for farmers and workers and that the product is good for the earth.

The Garden Club meeting is at Orcas Center, in the Madrona Room,  10 a.m., Wed., February 20. For more information see www.orcasislandgardenclub.org .