We use vanilla beans. Do you know where vanilla beans grow?
Since we cook a lot with vanilla beans, we like to know where vanilla beans grow. We don’t waste our vanilla beans either. If we use the seeds inside the pods, we put the pods in a jar of sugar and make our own vanilla flavored sugar to use in coffee or in some other dish.
Maybe you have seen Madagascar on a bottle of vanilla. Is that where vanilla beans grow? Is that the only place? How do they grow? Could we possibly grow our own?
This is what we discovered. Vanilla beans grow on the vanilla orchid (Vanilla planifolia), a tall, flowering vine native to tropical Mexico. Here in the US, the Department of Agriculture tells us they grow in plant hardiness zones 11 and 12. Those orchids thrive in humid conditions and rich, moist soil.
Where will those vanilla bean orchids grow in the US? They will not survive temperatures below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Since they require much warmer temperatures to flower and fruit successfully, they are typically grown in pots you can shelter indoors during cold or dry weather.
It can take three to five years for a vanilla orchid to produce beans. The plant will require hand pollination to help them fruit successfully.
Okay, this might be an experiment we should try.
This is what we would have to do if we wanted to know exactly how and where to grow our own vanilla beans.
Place the vanilla plant in a location with bright but indirect all-day sunlight and where temperatures remain between 80 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit. For structure and to ensure the best growth, place the legs of a 6-foot tall pot trellis into the soil of the pot. This is for the vine to climb.
Vanilla beans orchids like a warm mist. Fill a spray bottle with warm water. Mist the foliage, stems and foliage with the water once or twice daily. You don’t want the soil to dry out completely.
Place a layer of small pebbles in the drip tray beneath the pot. Fill the tray with water to just beneath the top surface of the pebbles. The evaporating water provides humidity, and the pebbles also prevent the pot from sitting in any excess water that drains out.
Mix 1 tablespoon of 30-10-10 fertilizer with 1 gallon of water. Water the vanilla beans orchid with the solution every three weeks until the excess just begins to drip from the bottom of the pot. Fertilize from spring through late summer when the plant is actively growing.
Feel the soil and check the stem base weekly for symptoms of fungal rot, which develops in overly wet soil. Reduce watering and allow the soil to dry out slightly if the potting mixture feels wet or if the base of the stem feels soft and mushy. Vanilla orchids suffer from few pests or problems other than fungal rots in overly moist soil.
Now for the hand pollinating. Vanilla beans require a lot of work.
Fold back the rostellum, the small membrane inside the center of the vanilla flower, with a toothpick to reveal the pollen covered anther inside. Press the anther against the stigma inside the flower, which is the long structure just beneath the anther. Pollinate the flowers daily as they open from late spring through summer. Each flower only lives for one day, and not all pollination is successful, so daily hand pollination increases the chances of bean production. Be prepared to wait for the vanilla beans.
Eight or nine months later…pick the vanilla beans from the orchid when they begin to turn yellow. This will happen if there was successful pollination. Snap off the stem holding the bean onto the orchid or cut through the stem with a small pair of scissors.
Now, to cure the beans, heat water to 190 degrees Fahrenheit in a large pot. Submerge the beans in the water for 20 seconds to scald them the same day they are harvested. Wrap the scalded beans in a wool towel and place them in a sealed plastic box to sweat them. Transfer the beans from the box to a preheated 120 degrees F oven for two hours the following day, and then return them to the box. Repeat the process of sweating and oven drying for seven days, and then set them outside to air-dry each day for up to three months to fully cure the beans.
Now we understand where vanilla beans grow, the process, and why they are so expensive.
Do we want to do this? It might be fun to try, provided we have the time and the right conditions.
How about you? Have you tried this, or do you want to try this? Let us know.
Find some recipes we like which use vanilla beans at https://www.forkscorksandbrews.com/forks/