Vanilla

Ha Annen
It would be nice if you could, but we don't have the climate, it likes hot humid conditions, I visited a Vanilla farm in Vanuatu it was fascinating, the bushes take a few years to get into production, but it is the conditioning of the pods that take time and need the correct conditions.

I don't know much about it, and what I do is based on faded memory, but my recollection is that they are a nightmare to grow!

Orchids needing humid rainforest conditions

Pods harvested have to them be processed to stop all vegetative growth, and at that point they have no Vanilla flavour, that is achieved by curing them which I think required wrapping them in bundles in the dark, but unwrapping them every day and exposing them to the sun for something like an hour only before wrapping them up again. I seem to remember that had to be repeated for ages? but maybe its gained something in the remembering and it was only a few weeks - still way too much Faff for me!!!

Indeed. Imagine if Runner Beans needed that sort of Love and Attention before you could eat them? There'd be an outcry on the forums

I've got some runner beans which have been curing in salt in Kilner jars for the past 18 months - bet they don't taste like either vanilla pods or runner beans!   

Tried my salted runners the other day, they take a bit of de-salting but are better than frozen !

Yes, it all seems a bit high maintenance. Now I know why they are so expensive in the shops.