Reprinted from the Santa Cruz Sentinel
October 5, 2003

The Queen of Vanilla

By MARGO MATEAS
Sentinel correspondent

When Patricia Rain was growing up on the Peninsula, her world was populated with interesting characters and celebrities who inspired her to learn more about the world and its people.

"I rode on Roy Rogers’ lap all the way from Salinas to Belmont in the Redwood City Rodeo parade when I was 7," she recalls. "And Hilo Hattie taught me to hula."

Rain credits these experiences with gifting her with a lifelong sense of adventure that eventually resulted in her earning a degree in cultural anthropology at UC Santa Cruz.

What happened later, as they say, is a matter of the Gods. Rain became interested in writing about vanilla in 1985 after a friend introduced her to an article in The Wall Street Journal, which detailed a deal between King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV of Tonga and Hank Kaestner, a purchasing agent for American spice giant McCormick and Co.

Since Tongan laborers were used to cultivating fast-growing crops, they cut short the year-long growing cycle of the vanilla bean plants and harvested them too soon, destroying the crop. The agent for McCormick’s spice company asked King Taufa’ahau Tupou to issue a royal decree forbidding harvest until the tips of the vanilla beans turned gold. In exchange, McCormick’s promised to purchase the entire crop.

Fascinated by the story, Rain, who had authored The Artichoke Cookbook, contacted Hank Kaestner the next day and began researching the history and growing practices surrounding vanilla. It proved to be a phone call that would set her upon a journey, which would reveal her life’s purpose: serving as a spokesperson and guardian of vanilla growers all over the world.

A staple

Vanilla is a key ingredient in hundreds of foods, including cakes, pastries, glazes and sauces, and items such as candles and perfume.

But its taste and smell don’t come cheap. Food processors and commercial cooks are paying as much as $150 a pound for pure vanilla — nearly six times what it cost three years ago.

Consumers who buy vanilla for their kitchen have seen the price for a small, 4-ounce bottle of pure vanilla at the supermarket climb to as much as $20, compared with $6 a few years ago.

The food industry blames the jump in prices on a series of bad growing seasons in the No. 1 vanilla-producing country, Madagascar.

Crops in Madagascar were damaged in 2000 by a cyclone, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization said. The storm wiped out more than 30 percent of the vanilla crop and destroyed storage houses containing much of the inventory on the Indian Ocean island.

Madagascar usually exports nearly 4 million pounds each year and supplies 75 percent of the world’s vanilla.

Following the success of The Vanilla Cookbook, which was the first book to capture vanilla’s history, botany, lore and food applications, Rain became a sought-after speaker in both the academic and culinary worlds, often speaking at conferences and other special events. In 1992, she was asked to speak at a culinary conference in Puebla, Mexico.

After the conference, she headed off to Vera Cruz to see the vanilla fields for herself. She met up with another American explorer who volunteered to serve as a guide for the rigorous six-hour trip to Papantia, where she talked with the local townspeople, or Totonacas and learned more about the intricate process of growing, curing and harvesting of the vanilla bean.

Vanilla passion

Rain returned to Santa Cruz more in love with vanilla and the people who produce it than ever. Giving in to a burning desire to return to the tiny village of Papantia, she visited again in 1994, and found herself a celebrity among the locals. Kaestner, the buyer’s agent for McCormick and Co., had brought The Vanilla Cookbook to the village soon after it was published, and distributed it to the many growers in the region.

Though they couldn’t read the English words, they recognized the many references to their land and people, and embraced Rain as their voice to the world, The Vanilla Queen. The Mexicans of Tononacapan adopted Rain and shared much of the history and verbal lore surrounding this mystical bean, long rumored to have healing properties.

Two years ago, Rain launched The Vanilla.Company, a Web site offering a variety of vanilla-based products. In December of last year, she published The Vanilla Chef, and is currently at work on the culinary and cultural history of vanilla. She appeared on Al Roker’s ‘Roker on the Road’ food show last month. But her real mission, she insists, is to assist the native growers to secure fair prices for their harvests.

"Right now, the vanilla industry is in an extraordinary crisis, due to a tragic combination of tropical storms and droughts, which have devastated the crops," she said, explaining that the shortage has driven prices of vanilla to more than $450 per kilo, compared to just $20 per kilo five years ago.

In addition, roving gangs called "The Rascals" frequently ambush buyers and hold up trucks. A buyer was killed in Madagascar recently by one such gang. Rain also said it is common for vanilla shipments to end up at their destination up to 2 tons short, from illegal siphoning.

Rain is working with TransFair to assist vanilla growers in securing fair trade agreements for their crops. In 2004, Rain says crops planted in other fertile regions will come to maturity, turning the market into a glut, which will then drop prices too low for farmers to receive a living wage. She is in frequent contact with growers all over the world, keeping track of the constant flux in the market.

"I had no idea when I wrote the vanilla cookbook that one day I would become the Vanilla Queen and have friends all over the world," she said. "I started out as a cookbook writer, and ended up a social and political activist."