Growing on a family-owned farm in Bangkok
Vanillin is small and very curious. She has heard of a hidden place where the rarest vanilla in the world grows, and she is going to find it.
Past the jungle, past the river with no name, past the maps that stop halfway, there is a valley called Vanilor. The vanilla there flowers for a single morning. Everyone who went looking for it came back without any. Most of them came back with friends.
The companions
Every friend Vanillin meets is a companion crop from our farm, a plant that grows beside the real vanilla vines.
The explorer
Small, stubborn, and polite to everyone, including the rain. Her two braids are cured vanilla pods, which is why everything she cooks smells like home. She has half a map, one lantern, and far too many questions.
On the farm · Vanilla. A climbing orchid. Each flower opens for one morning and is pollinated by hand.
The turmeric warrior
Loud, loyal and golden from head to toe. Fights with a turmeric leaf and apologises to it afterwards.
On the farm · Turmeric. Covers the shaded ground between the vines and keeps the soil from drying out.
The lemongrass scout
Sees the path before anyone else does. Speaks in whispers, never gets lost, smells faintly of lemon.
On the farm · Lemongrass. Lines the edges of the plot. Its roots hold the soil in place when the rains come.
The cacao elder
Has read every old map twice and trusts none of them. Decodes them slowly, over a great deal of tea.
On the farm · Cacao. Likes the same shade and damp air as vanilla, so the two share the understorey.
The black pepper trickster
Steals the map, then gives it back with a shortcut drawn on it. Nobody knows whose side he is on, Prik included.
On the farm · Black pepper. Another climbing vine. It grows up the same kind of support trees as the vanilla.
Meanwhile, on a family-owned farm in Bangkok
Vanilla is slow. Even cuttings from a mature vine take about eighteen months to flower, and the beans then need half a year of curing before they smell of anything at all.
We are telling Vanillin’s story at the same speed. Each arc lines up with something happening in the field, so you can watch the farm grow while she walks. When the vines flower, the story turns. When the first beans are picked, the season ends.
Season one · 52 episodes
Six arcs across 52 one-minute episodes. Each arc lines up with a stage of the farm, and the last one lands on the first harvest.
Vanillin hears about Vanilor from a passing traveller and leaves home with a lantern and half a map.
On the farm
The plot is levelled and drained, and the growing mix is made by hand. No vines yet.
Lost on her first night, she is found by Takrai, who teaches her how to read a trail.
On the farm
Cuttings from one mature mother vine go into the ground, four to a pillar, and start to climb.
Elder Koko reads the old maps over many cups of tea. Two of them disagree about everything.
On the farm
Slow months. The vines are trained sideways along wires, so their flowers will open at chest height.
Khamin gets everyone through the rains. Prik steals the map and returns it improved.
On the farm
Rain covers go up over the vines. Drainage, mulch, and a lot of looking at the sky.
Vanillin learns that some doors only open for a single morning.
On the farm
About eighteen months in, the first flowers open. Each one is pollinated by hand before noon.
The last arc of the season. We are not telling you what they find.
On the farm
The first harvest, then months of curing in the small house at the edge of the plot.
“Rain is only the sky asking everyone to sit down for a while.”
The pantry
Five things we will make from the vanilla, in the order the farm can supply them.
Cane sugar rested with split vanilla pods until it smells like a bakery at six in the morning. The first batches use vanilla we buy from growers we know. From the first harvest on, the pods are ours.
Premium pints made with our own beans, and a Thai story in every scoop. The one we are most excited about.
Recipes from the road, one for each companion, from Khamin’s golden custard to Elder Koko’s cacao and vanilla porridge.
A limited edition in Bangkok, made together with a French patisserie or an Italian kitchen.
Vanilla from our own harvest, bottled. The last chapter, and the slowest one.
For kitchens and shops
We are looking for a few patisseries, restaurants and stockists to build this with, starting in Bangkok.
French patisseries and Italian restaurants
One recipe, one short run in Bangkok, made with our vanilla and signed with both our names.
Cafés, hotels and delis in Bangkok
A vanilla ice cream with a real farm and a whole story behind it, for your counter or your menu.
Pastry chefs, hotels and chocolatiers
Cured Thai vanilla beans by the kilo, from our own harvest, for a small list of kitchens we know by name.
hello@vanilor.orgEpisode 1 is being drawn
Get the first episode when it is out, Vanillin’s diary from the farm once a month, and first pick of the first jar of vanilla sugar.
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