Vanilla Pods on vine
The pod of a green-stemmed vinous plant of the orchid family, introduced from Mauritius around about 1880, the vanilla was grown in numerous plantations around the islands in the 19th century. It became one of the country’s prime cash crops, exported throughout the world. Its cultivation all but disappeared in the late seventies when a disease struck the plantations and it has sadly never recovered.
Cured Vanilla
The vanilla pods are gathered before they are completely ripe, then blanched in boiling water and left to dry in the sun. Vanilla is highly fragrant, sweet and aromatic. Artificial vanilla flavouring on the other hand is much cheaper but harsher with an after taste. It is used mainly in sweet dishes.
Vanilla Flower
I hold fond memories of time spent early morning before going to school, whereby I took immense pleasure pollinating the newly opened flowers of the vanilla creeper and collecting and preparing the pods for drying. All pods were marked with a special stamp made up of small sharp nails fixed to the end of a small piece of timber, before being blanched. This stamp corresponded to the licence of the plantation owner and was used to identify the crop in case of theft.
Some interesting statistics
Seychelles first export of vanilla was 60 kilos in 1877 valued at Rs 1,195. In 1883, 2,776 kilos were exported. Land owners, appreciating the economic prosperity of vanilla production allocated many acres of their properties for its cultivation. The year 1901 saw a record crop of 71,899 kilos of vanilla valued at Rs 1,483,245 (Rs 15,42cts per kilo).
Indeed, Vanilla cultivation proved to be a veritable windfall for the agricultural economy of the Seychelles. Between 1893 and 1903, the harvest was 454,379 kilos – more vanilla than all the other British Colonies put together. In 1907, 70 tons were exported. Between 1960 – 1964, which was the time when vanilla growers were ceasing production for the export market because of the cheaper synthetic vanillin that most countries were buying, a total of 21,972 tons of vanilla were exported for the value of Rs 1,103,399. Between 1966 and 1970 the relatively meager amount of 8,191 kilos were exported for the value of Rs 295,000.
Source: The Agricultural History of Seychelles, www.virtualseychelles.sc
Sadly,nowadays, vanilla is not planted in any major quantity!
Please read this article from Tony Mathiot and it will lead you into the Secret of the Vanilla in the Seychelles.
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