Growing Vanilla Beans

Health Food Geeks: All About Organic Vanilla Beans

About Vanilla Did you know that Vanilla Beans come from gorgeous orchid flowers? Growing Vanilla is truly labor intensive. Every orchid must be hand pollinated by farm workers who carefully transfer the pollen from the anther to the stigma of the flower. The Vanilla flower has a very short life span, and only blooms for less than a day. This means that the growers have to inspect their plantations daily for open flowers to pollinate. 6-9 months after pollination, the long green pods begin to turn yellow at their tips, which means that they are ready to be harvested.The beans are harvested and then cured for 3-6 months on drying racks in the sun and in the halls of special packaging. During this time, they develop the dark color, rich aroma and delicious flavor that we all know and love. Apart from the culinary use, we can also exploit the intoxicating scent of vanilla recipes for body care. What better way to adorn ourselves with the delicious smell of orchids? Slice vanilla bean lengthwise and cut into small pieces. Place in a glass jar, cover with oil, cap and shake well. Keep in a sunny windowsill for 1-2 months and warm and shake daily.When the oil reaches the desired strength, strain the vanilla beans with cheesecloth and pour the infused oil in a bottle. You can even make a more concentrated version of this oil for use as a natural fragrance! Split vanilla beans lengthwise with a knife, leaving the seeds inside intact. Place vanilla beans in a jar, cover with alcohol, and cap. Stir the mixture, shaking the jar daily for 4-6 weeks. You can infuse the vanilla beans for as long as you want, and add new vanilla beans to make a strong extract.Once the flavor of the extract reached the desired strength, strain the vanilla beans and the bottle to the resulting extract. To make the bottles even more attractive, you can add a vanilla bean in each bottle. Vanilla extract will last indefinitely, and will become even more aromatic and flavorful as it ages. Vanilla extract home can be used in exactly the same way as commercial vanilla extract.

Handbook of Vanilla Science and Technology

The Biography of Vanilla

The Art and Soul of Baking

Foreign agriculture

Farm chemicals