Why Moreena Is One of My Favorite Bloggers

Not to mention mothers. It’s because of posts like this one.

So tonight we went trick-or-treating, just like last year. This year,
Annika only made it to 5 houses before she announced that she was ready
to return home. But the other two girls, Frankie and our neighbor,
Sabrina, were just getting started. So I pulled Annika along in the
wagon while Sabrina and Frankie ran ahead to ring doorbells. Annika and
I talked about pumpkins and spiders and bats. We talked about what her
costume will be next year. And while I was getting ready to feel sorry
for her that she was missing out on trick-or-treating, I realized that this
was the celebration for her. Riding along in a wagon, bundled up in a
lovely new hand-me-down coat from Sabrina, her hair sprayed green and a
witch’s hat perched on top of her new coat’s hood.

This is the celebration. Amen to that, Moreena.

The Answer to this Question May Be Where I’m Moving Next

Ria is a homeschooled ninth-grader who loves Chesterton, Tolkien, Irish dance, and chocolate cake—proving her to be a girl of excellent taste. On her charming blog, Liber Parma, she has issued a challenge: find a place where you could have a chocolate cake farm. That is, where on earth could you grow or produce all the ingredients necessary to make chocolate cake without buying anything? Ria writes:

Cocoa beans and sugar cane grow in similar climates, wheat can grow in
many places. We are not sure where you can get baking powder and baking
soda but if anyone else knows please let me know. Salt you can get from
the sea, for eggs you need a chicken and for milk a cow is necessary.
You need a vegetable and a press for vegetable oil, vanilla beans grow
in warm climates just like cocoa beans and sugar cane, and water is
likely to be in any place where people live.

Okay so you have
the background, now I have a challenge for you. Find a place, or several
places where you could have a farm that produces all of these things.
Use books, internet, whatever and have fun. Please comment back and
tell me what you found.

There is already some very interesting information in the comments. Related posts can be found at my favorite geography blog, The Map Guys, and at Studeo.

Ria, I’m afraid I must add a critical ingredient to your list: pecans. You can’t make my mom’s now-famous Rocky Road Sheet Cake without them!