If cocoa doesn’t completely satisfy your sweet tooth of yours, how about yet another Hawaiian sweet treat? It’s one of those crops that most of us love without having any ideas how it’s grown. Surprisingly enough, what ends as an addictive dessert item begins as a beautiful flower.

That’s what Pat discovered when she visited the only commercial vanilla farm in the U.S. She encountered farmer Jim Reddekopp starting a typical day: checking on what he likes to call his "children."

"Vanilla keikis, or children, in Hawaiian," smiled Jim.

"You have a lot of ‘children’ here," Pat noted.

"And it’s growing," replied Jim. "We’ll do about 20 thousand plants in here in the next couple of months."

Vanilla is the only orchid plant that bears fruit, and Reddekopp and wife Tracy have the only farm in the U.S. that grows vanilla commercially, on the big island of Hawaii. It’s something they stumbled onto seven years ago when they yearned to raise their family away from the hustle and bustle of Honolulu.

"And it just sort of opened up a huge thought process for us of how we could come in and grow something even though at that time we didn’t even know what we were going to grow," the couple said. "We wanted to come in and help this community. And then we started to think about how we would do it. We knew we needed human hands."

Some of those eager helping hands belong to the Reddekopps five children—schooled at home, they take a little time out of their day to help Dad in the 30 thousand square-foot greenhouse where the vanilla beans are grown.

Explains young Elliot Reddekopp, "We go down the stairs. We get a bucket, come over and start weeding down the rows."

Involving the children in farming and all that goes with it is important to the Reddekopps:

"They’ve been exposed to our failures and our victories," says the couple." And they watched, you know, us through that. That’s life-changing for them. "

Vanilla orchids require a lot of tender, loving care. "Each flower opens for one day and each flower bud is individually hand pollinated." says Jim. "You’ll see the back of the flower bud and that eventually is what turns into the bean."

The bean stays on the vine for two months to reach its mature length before it produces any seed. It will continue to grow on the vine for another six months when it starts to turn yellow and ripen.

"Then you see the brown, the curing actually, natural curing starting to happen. You’ll start to smell for the first time what we know as vanilla….that vanilla smell, that vanilla aroma."

The bean is then harvested, blanched, sun dried and conditioned over another nine months before it’s ready to be sold. That’s a lot of work, making vanilla one of the costliest spices in the world. So why do it? The answer: there’s a lot of products made from it.

Vanilla Kisses is the name of a lip balm—one of the many products Tracy has created and sells in a little shop on the farm as well as by mail. They also sell their grade A beans. To share the virtues of vanilla with the public, the Reddekopps open up their farm to visitors for special events, including a luncheon they call the "Hawaiian Vanilla Experience."

Once again, this is a family affair, from serving guests to little Aiden greeting them with a lei. Then it’s onto the buffet, featuring recipes like fresh mixed microgreens with a vanilla champagne vinaigrette. There seems to be no end to the uses Tracy Reddecopp finds for vanilla.

"We find it very exciting," says Tracy. " And we feel when people come up here they have the same experience. They’re very excited."

Visitor Donna Linerud agrees. "We had a wonderful time. The lunch was good. The spot was gorgeous. Real nice experience. "

"The whole operation to me is just astounding, adds visitor James Hutchison. "You know they came here you know with just what, a handful of vanilla beans and a fascination for it."

It’s a sweet crop, a successful family farm, and happy visitors. All reasons why the Reddekopps say they’ve got a lot to sing about.

Additional information:
Additional info: Who’s the biggest producer of vanilla? The African island of Madagascar. 60-percent of the world’s beans are produced there.

Contact information:
HAWAIIAN VANILLA COMPANY
808-776-1771
TOLL FREE: 877 771-1771
Email: vanillakitchen@aol.com
Website: www.hawaiianvanilla.com