![]() This process continues for more than a week, after which the pods are dried in the sun in single layers for several more weeks. The pods are brought outside to cure under the sun during the day, then placed back in the sweat boxes at night. They are then placed in a sweat box, where their aroma and flavor develops even further. Every golden green vanilla bean is picked by hand while it is still unripe before being blanched in hot water, which stops the maturation process and activates the enzymes responsible for flavor. The labor requirements of vanilla don’t stop at hand-pollination. This makes growing vanilla incredibly labor-intensive, requiring constant monitoring so that no orchids are missed in the hand-pollination process. Each vanilla plant produces several green, white, or yellow orchids that bloom at different times throughout the growing season and only stay in bloom for one day. It takes three to five years after it’s first planted before it starts to produce vanilla pods. Vanilla is part of the orchid family and grows on long vines that wind up trees or tall posts. This simple yet labor-intensive method is still how vanilla is produced today. ![]() After decades of being unable to produce vanilla, it was discovered that without that specific bee species, vanilla needed to be hand-pollinated, one by one, by the farmers themselves. As a native plant of Mexico, vanilla was historically pollinated by one species of bee unique to the region, so when the plants were brought to Madagascar in the late 1700s, where most of the world’s vanilla is grown today, the bees didn’t come with them and yields were poor. The oldest reports of vanilla come from the pre-Columbian Maya who used vanilla in a drink made with cocoa and other spices. Photo Credit: Nielsen-Massey Vanillas Origins In fact, vanilla might not have made it into our Seed Butter at all if it hadn’t been for one tiny species of bee in Mexico. ![]() ![]() So why is this common baking ingredient the world's second most expensive spice (after saffron)? Like so many food mysteries, the answer starts in the fields. We think of vanilla as a pantry staple, a pungent and aromatic spice that makes cookies taste extra special and gives our Vanilla Spiced Sunflower Seed Butter its name. ![]()
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