Our Mother Earth

Aloha and welcome to our first quarterly newsletter. We are so excited to share with you our love of vanilla. When we purchased our home in Hawaii we were not looking for a farm. Let alone a farm that had some strange vine growing in the middle of our property in a 4,000 sq. ft. shade structure. This eye-sore was based deep in concrete with steel poles that stood 16 feet high. It would be a grand undertaking to remove!

That was over 9 years ago. It has been a journey of learning and research, patience, anxiety, failures, experimentation and all the feelings of being a “new mom” to the vines. It’s time to share. I can’t keep it all to myself anymore.

It is important to understand that soil in every part of the world is different, composed of different mineral concentrations, nutrients, particulate matter, pollutants, and any other substance that floats in the atmosphere in a given region. Is there is a significant difference where the vanilla vines are grown for a bold sweet taste and aroma? You bet!

We are at the base of an active volcano, Hualalai, which last erupted in 1801 and is best known for the black gold that comes from its slopes—Kona Coffee. The Hawaiian Islands have developed over thousands of years from volcanic eruptions. Volcanos explode throwing fire and stone into the air along with acid clouds traveling for hundreds of miles. The lava destroys all in its path covering it for thousands of years. What happens after lava flows have slowed, hardened and cooled? Balance returns. Once the lava hardens and begins to break down it will turn into some of the richest soil on earth.

Volcanic soil is rich in certain key nutrients, such as iron, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, phosphorous, sulfur, silicon and many other trace elements, a rich combination that can act as a stimulant for plant growth. When volcanic ash and lava fall in the same place, particularly if the region receives good amounts of precipitation, this is an ideal situation for rapid regrowth and abundance of plant growth.

Added bonus, 99.9% of all vanilla grows within a 25 degree north/south of the equator. Climate zone is also important. The climate within this designated circle is most ideal for growing coffee, cacao and every other bean, including vanilla beans. Similar to coffee and chocolate, vanilla beans take on the taste of the soil and climate where they are grown.

In the same way a coffee aficionado will tell you that Kona coffee is completely different than Columbian or Costa Rican coffee, a vanilla bean aficionado will tell you that a Tahitian vanilla bean is nothing like a Madagascar vanilla bean. Our v. planifolia vines are the same species grown in Madagascar. The DNA is the same but the growing conditions differ! Our Hawaiian climate, soil conditions and temperature variants allow our vines to develop a bean that has a bold sweet rum-like flavor similar to the Madagascar with a hint of tropical aloha.