It takes vanilla beans six to eight months to mature and cure ... workers periodically fold off the high parts of the plant downwards to make it accessible. The vine has to be six feet in length.

The truest vanilla flavor comes from the beans—here's everything you need ... the seeds that have the flavor," says Boggiss. To make the best use of vanilla pods, they should be split and ...

You do have free will, though, so you can play around with them. If you've gotten your hands on some vanilla beans, you can make your own vanilla extract after using their seeds to make them go ...