What do your retirement dreams consist of? Booking cruises? Taking up pottery? Sleeping in?

When brainstorming their retirement, Michael and Maria Rogers came up with the same idea on the same day. It wasn’t what you’d imagine.

“We thought we’d grow cacao,” said Michael Rogers, 54, a former naval flight officer at Naval Air Station Barbers Point. His wife also recently retired from the military. “We wanted to grow something uniquely Hawaiian.”

“I wanted land with a view where I could build a family estate. We have two small children, 3 and 11, and I wanted a property they could grow up on with a nature-centered lifestyle,” he said.

After a bit of a search, in late 2014 Rogers found his piece of land, 9-1/2 acres in Kahaluu populated with fruit trees — banana, avocado, coconut, papaya, starfruit, lychee — tropical flowers and 75 cacao trees.

He named it 21 Degrees Estate Cacao Farm. The name refers to the range from the equator in which cacao can grow.

But Rogers has more in his game plan than just farming. In fact, his focus is less about commercial cacao production and mostly about agricultural tourism, or agritourism.

Hawaii agritourism is still a fledgling industry, yet its value is estimated at more than $78 million annually, according to the Hawai‘i AgriTourism Association. Rogers’ farm joins such isle agritourism businesses as Big Island Bees, Original Hawaiian Chocolate, Ali‘i Kula Lavender and Kahuku Farms.

“I knew I had two solid hard years ahead of me,” Rogers said of launching his farm.

Not only has Rogers cleared the land virtually on his own and planted 400 cacao seedlings (with 100 more to go), he literally built his family’s two-story dwelling, on the property at the top of a winding hill.

Now he’s completing a cottage that sits next to a neatly landscaped spot with orderly rows of baby cacao trees. The cottage will be a space to hold events such as farm-to-table dinners and chocolate-wine pairings.

He is designing his farm according to what he calls the “vineyard model,” in which visitors tour the farm to learn about growing and harvesting cacao. At some point Rogers might even offer chocolate making. He hopes to be ready to host visitors in a year.

“Oahu is the center for tourism, so there are big opportunities for the tourist side of business,” he said. “This is a good place in the U.S. to travel and visit, and there’s more besides the beach and Waikiki. There’s more agritourism on the neighbor islands, so I believe we need to move in that direction.”

As to the core of the plan — the cacao itself — Rogers worked with expert Daniel O’Doherty, a cacao consultant and former researcher for the University of Hawaii’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. O’Doherty grew seedlings from the best cacao he found in his travels. “There was much interbreeding to produce a high-quality cacao,” said Rogers.

He plans to sell the bulk of what he produces to local chocolate makers such as Madre Chocolate and Manoa Chocolate.

“I might retain some to perhaps make our own line, just for us to give away,” he said.

Rogers has similar plans for honey he harvests from four hives on the property. It’s not enough to sell, but enough to brand and give away.

Near the cottage, Rogers raises nine chickens in a pretty red henhouse that provide him with fresh eggs daily. Some hens are brown with white speckles, others are ivory; all are fluffy and content. The entire scene adds a quaintness to the setting.

“It’s exciting to see all this develop one step at a time,” he said. “It’s a very deliberate plan.”