Tribute to Vanilla

Seeing as how the 4th of July is almost upon us and that means pie with vanilla ice cream, vanilla frosting on cakes with blueberry and strawberry American flags and, ummm, creme brulee? Well maybe save that for Bastille Day. Anyway I thought I'd write a little about the most popular flavor out there and also the second most expensive spice next to saffron-vanilla!

Reading up on the process of growing and commercially producing vanilla beans I was extremely humbled. "They have to do all that for one little vanilla pod?" I thought with a twinge of guilt, though I like to think I treat each vanilla bean I use with an appropriate amount of reverance. Apparently the only natural pollinator of the orchids that produce the aromatic beans are a specific breed of bee only living in Mexico, which means all other locations producing vanilla (mainly areas in Africa, French Polynesia and other tropical locales) need to hand pollinate each delicate flower within 12 hours of it opening. Though a vine may have 20 flowers, only 5-6 are pollinated to maintain quality. The ripe pods are harvested daily to ensure that each individual one is at the peak of perfection. They then go through several procedures for curing, taking weeks before showing up in your Ben and Jerry's. For a real treat, vanilla lovers can partake of the Golden Opulence Sundae at Serendipity 3 in New York. A Tahitian vanilla ice cream covered in the world's most expensive chocolate and gold leaf will cost $1000. But you do get to keep the crystal sundae dish!