The reason why vanilla extract is so dang expensive 😅 Vanilla beans don’t come off the vine black and shiny as we know and love them. They start out green, their tips yellowing as they ripen and loosen their grip on the mother plant. At that moment of harvest, the vanilla bean begins a fraught and arduous four-month metamorphosis. Dipping, Sweating, Sunning, Drying, few ingredients in the food world match this journey. Before we start, a warning. Nothing can cure an unripe bean. Like berries an