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Last year I came across a stall at my local fruit and vegetable market in NZ. It was selling only vanilla pods - which seemed odd to me as there couldn't be tha
by tmnvix 3y ago
Last year I came across a stall at my local fruit and vegetable market in NZ. It was selling only vanilla pods - which seemed odd to me as there couldn't be that much demand for vanilla in such a small market.
After talking with the stallholder, he told me that he had come from the Cook Islands on behalf of a government trade delegation hoping to promote their vanilla. Interestingly, nobody there farms it but they have an abundance growing wild - enough that they were hoping to establish an industry.
- teruakohatu 3y agoWhere in NZ did you see that?
- tmnvix 3y agoNewtown, Wellington.
- woleium 3y agoWait, what? I thought all vanilla had to be hand pollinated at great expense.. at least the article I read about Madagascars vanilla farms said that the pollinator had been lost, and now vanilla is dependent on humans.
- MrOwen 3y agoHad the pollinators been lost because they were never natively there in the first place? Madagascar vanilla is an imperial creation, courtesy of the French. Perhaps not as much of a problem in vanilla's native habitat, Mexico.
- Cthulhu_ 3y agoNow I'm going to take that statement with a grain of salt; what if that's just a rumour that the vanilla industry spread to increase the value?