Homemade Vanilla

Tahina, the mother of one of Luc’s school friends, is a lovely woman from Madagascar. For years, in our playground passings, she offered to bring us vanilla beans from the island, which she insisted were different. Her family and the surrounding community grow vanilla orchids there, harvesting the pods from the orchids each November and December. We always accepted without hesitation. Since then, we’ve been hooked, because the pods are fragrant, plump with seeds, and always nice and pliable