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Vanilla Orchid Cultivation - From Blossom to Beans

May 15, 2008 | Hits for this post:98 |

There is a simple truism about vanilla: the finest vanilla can only come from the finest vanilla beans. It is no mystery that great vanilla is the result of painstaking care. Growing vanilla is extremely labor intensive–a delicate and inevitably expensive operation. Hurrying the process or attempting shortcuts diminishes quality. Only a small portion of the beans grown worldwide is given the care and patience that allows the bean to fully mature, a process critical to obtaining the finest flavor from each individual bean. 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. 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 hand-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 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. 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. 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. 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. Growers are inclined to pick the vanilla green so that they can cash in on their crop before the “vanilla rustlers” visit their fields at night stealing the beans from their vines.

Growers in Madagascar often brand their beans as a means of theft prevention. The beans are large, tasteless green pods, and must be cured to develop flavor and aroma. The flavor components are bound as glycosides and must be set free by enzymatic reaction. Vanilla beans are blanched in hot water to halt photosynthesis and then spread them in sunlight. For three weeks the beans dry naturally in the sun during the day and sweat in rolled blankets at night. After sun drying, the beans continue to dry at a slower rate. 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 to plants for distribution.

Cook Flavoring Company is dedicated to the manufacture and distribution of the finest pure vanilla extracts and flavorings for the culinary industry. Benefiting from superior scientific knowledge and lifetimes of experience in vanilla production and manufacturing, Cook Flavoring Company is one of the world’s foremost vanilla manufacturers.

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