Cultivation of vanilla:

Did you know that vanilla is actually a fleshy climbing vine from the orchid family, the largest family of flowering plants in the world? It can get up to 100 feet long. The vanilla fruit is the only edible fruit of the entire orchid family. There are about 150 varieties of vanilla in the world, although there are only two types that are actually used in the food and perfumes that you use at home.

The vanilla planifolia is a tropical, evergreen, leafy, and somewhat fleshy vine, growing under a canopy of support trees. The plant is sustainable within a 20-degrees band around the equator. Vanilla vines require three years before they bear fruit. Each spring the plant bears small, pale greenish-yellow orchids. The flowers that produce the vanilla fruit are large, have a yellow greenish color, and occur in groups of twenty or more. They only last one day before they die. Like most orchids, the blossoms grow along stems branching from the main vine. The buds, growing along the 6 to 10 inch stems, bloom and mature in sequence, each at a different time. Without pollination the blossom wilts and falls, and no vanilla bean can grow. Each flower must be pollinated within 12 hours of opening. The only insect capable of pollinating the blossom is the Melipona, a bee, native only to Mexico. All vanilla commercially grown today is pollinated by hand. A small splinter of wood or a grass stem is used to lift the rostellum or flap out of the way so that the overhanging anther can be pressed against the stigma to effect self pollination. On the plantations, girls pollinate hundreds of flowers by hand with their “needles”. A healthy vine should produce about 100 pods per year, however our growers are careful to pollinate only a few of the blossoms on each stem. Over pollination results in diseased and unhealthy inferior beans.

The vanilla bean grows quickly on the vine but is not ready for harvest until maturity- approximately nine months in order to completely develop their signature aroma. However, when the beans are harvested, they have neither flavor nor fragrance. They develop these distinctive properties during the preparation. Harvesting vanilla beans is as labor intensive as pollinating the blossoms. Each bean ripens at its own time, requiring a daily harvest for 3 or 4 weeks. To ensure the finest flavor from every bean, each individual pod must be picked by hand just as it splits. The flavor components are bound as glycosides and must be set free by enzymatic reaction. When the beans are harvested, they are treated with hot water or heat and are then placed in the sun every day and sweat in rolled blankets at night for weeks to months until they have shrunk to 20% of their original size. It is crucial that the vanilla bean not be harvested until it is yellow on the tip and is beginning to split on the end. If picked too green the bean will lack flavor and develop molds that will eventually cause it to rot. After this process is complete, the beans are sorted for size and quality. Then they will rest for a month or two to finish developing their full flavor and fragrance. The entire curing process takes about three months.

            

During the curing, an enzyme converts the precursors to the rich flavoring elements that make up more than 170 flavoring components of properly grown and cured bean. Four pounds of green beans make only one pound of dried vanilla. The vanilla is completely cured when the proper moisture content is reached, and the beans have darkened to a sweet, rich aroma. The beans are then inspected for quality, hand sorted for length and shipped.