Vanilla Farm

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Our Vanilla Farm La Vanillère
Our farm, La Vanillère was founded in 1998 and is located 35 kilometers from town on Raiatea, the second most important administrative island after Tahiti. The largest vanilla farm in French Polynesia, La Vanillère is the first and only Tahitian vanilla farm that grows its beans inside greenhouses. This protection allows the beans to be grown organically.

La Vanillère consists of 6000 square meters of production housed in 4 large greenhouses nestled in the picturesque natural beauty of Raiatea. The vanilla plant is actually an orchid, which produces a beautiful white flower between July and October each year. The flowers must be hand pollinated on the same day they open in order to produce beans. Thus, each day during the flowering season, workers check all the vines in search of the delicate flowers.

Nine months after the pollination, the beans are ready for harvesting. The green vanilla beans are then laid out in the sun each day for 4 to 6 hours for a period of 3 to 6 months. This natural curing process helps distinguish the Tahitian bean from the more common Bourbon vanilla (grown in Madagascar, Indonesia, Fiji, etc), resulting in a soft, oily bean with a very strong fragrance.

La Vanillère has four full time employees on the farm, with that number growing to 10 or more during peak flowering season.

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Tahiti Agricultural Show La Vanillère recently won the First Place award at the agricultural show in Tahiti.		Concours Général Agricole Won Silver medal for the first competition in Vanilla at the Agricultural Show in Paris 2007


Vanilla Flower Vanilla is an orchid!!!		Green Beans Green beans before harvest


Sorted Vanilla Beans We sort vanilla beans by length.		Green House You can see the beautiful ocean from our farm.