Jason E. Andersen

Last week I learned that people are very passionate about their pizza choices. I respect that.

Bonus Fun Fact: Vanilla, as in the flavoring, comes from a species of orchid. Orchids like the colorful ones you see as you walk in to Hy-Vee. Specifically, and perhaps unsurprisingly, vanilla is derived from the vanilla genus of orchids, mostly from Vanilla planifolia, commonly called flat-leaved vanilla.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I took a weekend trip to sunny Des Moines for the weekend. As we are both nature nerds, we made a quick stop at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, sneaking in just before closing. During our lap of the exhibits, we came across this sign, which shocked me with the knowledge it bestowed upon my person:

This display sign blew my mind. The caption reads “Vanilla Orchid, Vanilla planifolia. Vanilla is the only orchid used for industrial purposes. Each flower opens for one day to be pollinated and produce the fruit or vanilla bean. The pod of the vanilla fruit is used to create the vanilla flavoring widely used in baking.”

Amazing! I had no idea!

Here’s some more photos that I dug up on the internets, to give you more context for this cool plant:

• 

• 

• 

Incidentally, I don’t much like the taste of vanilla, unless its part of chocolate chip ice cream.

Bonus Bonus Fun Fact: The really bright orchids in Hy-Vee are usually dyed to be colored that way. It’s artificial. Sorry if that spoils it for anyone.

Bonus Bonus Bonus Fun Fact: It seems that people sometimes kind of like that things that I write on here, so I decided to purchase a subscription to WordPress, to get rid of the advertisements if nothing else. Someone told me that they kept getting ads for bras when they visited my blog. While I am not expressly against bras, I don’t think they’re on theme. That shouldn’t happen any more.