Crazy fermenting vanilla extract

[NASH]

This from his eBay page....

About Certified Organic

Virtually all vanilla beans are grown organically in third world countries. Quite simply, the vanilla bean farmers can't afford fertilizers and pesticides. In addition, due to the remote areas that vanilla is grown, there isn't the infrastructure to bring in the fertilizers and pesticides.

Some sellers on eBay advertise Government Certified Organic Vanilla Beans or Certified Organic Vanilla Beans. The beans in question do not meet the definition of certified organic under US law. Under USDA rules, in order for a seller to sell or label vanilla beans as "Certified Organic", their supplier must be certified by a USDA Certifier and belong to the National Organic Program (NOP). A certificate from a foreign government does not meet this criteria, nor is it even close to the same thing.

Beans are sorted by size and quality.True organic certification involves regular certified independent inspections of the actual plantations from planting, harvesting, curing, packaging shipping, and handling by resellers. Traceability and organic compliance is maintained from the grower to the end user. All parties involved must have written procedures that have to be approved and audited by the certifier that must be followed.

At this time, Vanilla Products USA does not carry USDA certified organic vanilla beans, although all of our beans are grown organically. We can acquire certified organic vanilla beans in larger quantity.

[Graham.C]

Yeah I guess I should have kept reading. (we need a face palm smiley)

Thanks

[Graham.C]

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Finally got around to getting these going. Day 1. Have lots more vanilla beans but ran out of vodka.

[NASH]

Have lots more vanilla beans but ran out of vodka.

[mr x]

Stock up on beans now. Prices are about to take a big jump.

[CorneliusAlphonse]

hmm, huge difference in price between grades. should i go for a pound of "grade B extract", or 1/2 a pound of "prime grade A gourmet"? or maybe a little variety pack.. so many options

[GAM]

hmm, huge difference in price between grades. should i go for a pound of "grade B extract", or 1/2 a pound of "prime grade A gourmet"? or maybe a little variety pack.. so many options

Liam

What are the details? Is this worth a group buy?

Sandy

[Graham.C]

hmm, huge difference in price between grades. should i go for a pound of "grade B extract", or 1/2 a pound of "prime grade A gourmet"? or maybe a little variety pack.. so many options

Get the extract if you are going to make extract. It's a moisture content thing, you want less moisture if you are making extract. If you order a couple pounds for making extract they normally throw in some Grade A gourmet as a bonus, which then serve nicely in the kitchen.

[CorneliusAlphonse]

hmm, huge difference in price between grades. should i go for a pound of "grade B extract", or 1/2 a pound of "prime grade A gourmet"? or maybe a little variety pack.. so many options

Get the extract if you are going to make extract. It's a moisture content thing, you want less moisture if you are making extract. If you order a couple pounds for making extract they normally throw in some Grade A gourmet as a bonus, which then serve nicely in the kitchen.

thanks! extract is my plan. it looks like they include a few tahitian beans for any order over 10 bucks (increasing amounts with larger orders)

Sandy: The shipping doesn't seem to change much by quantity, so i'm not sure if it is worthwhile to do a group buy. never used ebay, to be honest.

[Graham.C]

hmm, huge difference in price between grades. should i go for a pound of "grade B extract", or 1/2 a pound of "prime grade A gourmet"? or maybe a little variety pack.. so many options

Get the extract if you are going to make extract. It's a moisture content thing, you want less moisture if you are making extract. If you order a couple pounds for making extract they normally throw in some Grade A gourmet as a bonus, which then serve nicely in the kitchen.

thanks! extract is my plan. it looks like they include a few tahitian beans for any order over 10 bucks (increasing amounts with larger orders)

Sandy: The shipping doesn't seem to change much by quantity, so i'm not sure if it is worthwhile to do a group buy. never used ebay, to be honest.

If I remember right the shipping is really reasonable and they don't charge you to ship your free samples, but I do think the quality of the samples improves with order size. So if your only getting a 1/2lbs or something it might be worthwhile to group up. I think I ordered 2 lbs of extract beans and it came with 1/2 lbs of Madagascar grade A. Great deal AFAIAC.

[Graham.C]

Does anyone know a cheap source of vodka?

[akr71]

Ask the Alelanders - you might need to know a secret hand-shake tho'

Edit: Just sayin' I've heard the Island is known to harbor the odd moonshiner, not that any of our fine upstanding members know anything about that.

[GAM]

Does anyone know a cheap source of vodka?

I may have some!

Sandy

[maltster]

Just bottled 17 beans in 375ml of vodka. Now comes the hard part...waiting six months!

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