Vanilla is ubiquitous in the baking world as an ingredient that will provide a wonderful depth of flavour to all manner of baked goods. We had a chat with Nick Upite from Bloomfield Vanilla to find out about what goes into producing this tasty bean.

Tell us about Bloomfield Vanilla
Bloomfield Vanilla is a small family-run farm in the picturesque Bloomfield River Valley on the far northern end of the iconic Daintree National Park. It was established in 2005.
All the products are grown, harvested, and handcrafted by the owner/operator on site, Nick, who took eight years of experimentation to refine the curing and processing practices to ensure the highest quality possible. For that same reason, he keeps the farm boutique and will just expand enough for him to operate it as a small family business.

Why vanilla?
From a very young age, Nick called himself a ‘vanilla nut’, and when he stumbled across a neglected piece of vanilla vine in his friend’s backyard years later, he nursed it back to health. After some time, he even managed to hand-pollinate a couple of flowers and produce some beans.
Nick, a boiler maker/fisherman by trade, always dreamed about turning his remote little piece of land into some sort of farming business. After a few years of playing with the vanilla plants as a hobby, he decided to make it not only his passion but his profession.

Nick Upite in the Bloomfield Vanilla farm

How much vanilla do you produce?
Annually, Bloomfield Vanilla produces between 8,000–10,000 A-grade vanilla bean pods.

What are the challenges of growing vanilla
To just grow the vine is not a challenge at all, all is needed is a basket with mulch and a trellis for the orchid to climb on. The first challenge occurs when the flowers start to bloom, as each flower needs to be pollinated by hand as the local bees and insect can’t be trusted to do the work for the farmer.
Each flower only opens for a short amount of time one morning, and if not pollinated in time, the flower will drop off and the bean is lost. Once the flower is safely pollinated, the bean will grow to its full length within three weeks and then just hang on the vine for eight months until it reaches maturity. This is where the next challenge lies. If the pod is picked to early, it won’t develop its whole potency of flavour and will lack in quality. On the other hand, if the bean is left on the vine for too long it will split, drop off, and once again the bean is lost.

When is your vanilla harvested and what does that involve?
The harvesting time is between late April and the middle of August. It involves daily picking to ensure the timing is exactly right; each mature bean needs to be checked daily.

What goes into the processing for vanilla to sale?
Once the still-green bean is picked, it has to be “killed” in hot water to stop the bean from growing further, which results in splitting. The now-killed beans will sweat for a couple of days enveloped in warm blankets tucked away in heat boxes. After the initial sweating, the beans have a beautiful chocolate colour and are ready for the sun-drying process. Each day, the pods will spend a couple of hours sprawled out on drying racks in the tropical sunshine of the Far North.

A few weeks into this process, the beans are still supple and plump but have lost about 2/3 of their size and are ready for conditioning. Laid out on trays, they will spend the next few months in an airconditioned room and will only be handled for their weekly massage to fully develop the flavour. When the pods have reached their required texture, they are stowed away in dark cupboards until their full flavour potential is reached and they are ready to depart their homes to market.

All of the vanilla that you grow is 100 per cent natural and organic. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
Bloomfield Vanilla is grown under the natural canopy of the rainforest. No shade houses are involved in the growing, as we like to avoid contaminating the products with any potential micro-plastics. Luckily, vanilla has limited predators, so the use of any form of pesticides is unnecessary. The mulch that is used to grow the vines in is also grown and produced on site to ensure its absolute purity.

What are some of the different products you supply?

• Whole A-grade Vanilla Bean Pods min 17cm in length
• Hand crafted Vanilla Extract. We steep our vanilla beans in food grade alcohol for 2 years and decant it into 50ml bottles
• Premium Vanilla Bean Powder. Whole vanilla beans dehydrated and ground into a fine powder. Which is one of our specialty products as it is the only pure form of vanilla that does not need to be infused in sugar, heat or alcohol. It can be for example just be sprinkled over some Greek yoghurt and will turn it into vanilla goodness.
• Vanilla Bean Paste. Agave Syrup infused with vanilla, the perfect product for any busy cook as it is very easy to use. And the beautiful black vanilla specks that usually resemble the use of a whole bean will still show in the end product of any delicious vanilla creation.
• Vanilla Bean Syrup. A honey-coloured sugar syrup infused with lots of vanilla to create the perfect topping for pancakes, waffles, and pavlovas or as the perfect addition to tea, coffee, and the odd cocktail.