HERB - Question about the origins about vanilla

[Gaylin Walli]

Anahita kindly pointed me in the direction of a map when she said:

>Mexico IS in North America. And there is commercial cultivation of 
>vanilla in Mexico. So, yes, there is commercial cultivation of 
>vanilla in North America.

And that, dear friends, is why I failed geography. :) I'm hideously
State-centric and I freely admit it. Anything south of the American
Southwest border magically become "foreign," "exotic," and "not
in North American." *laugh*

>The vanilla i buy is grown in Madagascar, a place to which it isn't 
>native. This is considered the best vanilla. Mexican vanilla is also 
>considered good. Tahitian and Indonesian vanilla are weaker.

If I'm not mistaken, most of the Tahitian and Madagascar vanilla is
not of the V. planifolia variety. "Tahitien" or "Tahitienses" ... I'm
struggling to remember the word they use and I can't seem to find
my spice book right now. Overall I think there are probably about
50 +/- species of vanilla, but V. planifolia is the one that most would
agree is "true" vanilla.

Iasmin

Iasmin de Cordoba, iasmin at home.com
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