cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23224596
More pix first. Then explanation.
So this is going on the fifth year I'll be farming Vanilla. My operation is microscopic but it's a work in progress. I've got maybe 300 vines all in. I got some Vanilla off this planting 2 years ago, and this was the first vines I planted. Which is some what typical for Vanilla. Usually 3-5 years before they really become productive.
I fertilized these back in May/ April. It's a tiny yield but next year I expect to have maybe 5-20x this amount, which means if I can sell some of it, I'll finally be able to cover some of my costs.
Right now I have about five varieties. All from either trade or from hiking to old plantations and looking for feral populations. This one is a variety of Tahitiensis and I made a vanilla bean whip cream a few months ago with it. It's a very distinctly 'bourbon' flavor. Like i ground it up in a mortar and pessle and it straight up smelled like whiskey.
So not close to enough to sell (again) this year. But next year and the following years, maybe this hobby will finally start paying itself off.
I've never seen fresh vanilla! I have to ask... Can you eat them like green beans?
No not really at all. The curing process is pretty extensive and the plants, when cut, smell more like bandaids than vanilla. The split pod in the above image smells intoxicating, so when they become ripe, they do smell like vanilla. However, to get nicely cured beans, requires about 3 months of processing. I'll save up beans until I have enough to do a batch, but I wont have vanilla I can work with till prob spring.
Interesting. They look so tender in the picture. Like you could stir fry them!