A few weeks ago, Gnome started pollinating the vanilla.  It was pretty hard work because he had to climb a ladder to get to the flowering vines.

We were actually asked if the scent of the flowers were like vanilla.  When I went to check the first time, I didn’t think that they smelt of anything.  With subsequent sniffs, I think they have a faint sweetish scent similar to honeysuckle.

Anyway, the pollinating has worked and we have pods forming!  Oooooh…look at that…we are so pleased!

We will have to wait for the pods to mature…takes about 6 months; indications are when they turn pale start to split at the end.  They get to about 15cm in length.  Harvesting still requires a lot of attention because each pod ripens in its own time so this is another job to add onto the daily list!  Phew…farming is actually a lot of work!

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