Vanilla Paradise Nevis marks milestone, harvest first ripe vanilla beans

St Kitts and Nevis: The Vanilla Paradise Nevis was thrilled to announce its first mini harvest of vanilla beans, marking a huge milestone for the first vanilla farm on the island. While sharing the development on its official Facebook account, founder and owner of the farm Gina Empson said that the harvest marks a significant step forward in the journey towards sustainable and organic cultivation.

The farm officials recognise this as a huge milestone because this is the first farm in Nevis who are working to cultivate Vanilla on the island with an aim to export it to neighbouring countries.

Founder Empson also said that the result was months of hard work, dedication, and guidance from expert mentor Bertrand Come, who travelled from La Réunion to guide the officials through the process firsthand.

While sharing glimpses of the produce, which looked perfect in size and colour, Gina Empson added that she was very excited as the whole team gathered around the vanilla vines in the shade houses to witness the moment during which they had to carefully pluck the ripe vanilla beans. The team ensured that the beans were harvested at the peak of perfection.

Bertrand also shared insights into the harvest, saying that the pod is good to harvest when the top becomes yellow. He said that quality booms when the product is harvested at just the right time.

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Gina further added that the harvest was small around 100 beans but it is a big start for the whole team who are engaged in the hard process of cultivating vanilla on the small island of Nevis.

She added that she now looks forward to next spring when there will be flowers on all the vanilla vines exactly after nine months which will be a real harvest since then the team will know that Vanilla Paradise Nevis has truly flourished.

As she shared glimpses of the project on Facebook, Premier of Nevis Mark Brantley said, “This is a truly exciting project.” Several other citizens expressed their luck to her and gave their good wishes to Gina saying, “Well done Gina and the Vanilla Team!!! Your dedication, enthusiasm and hard work are paying off!!”