17 August: Vanilla

Today is Vanilla custard day. 10 things you might not know about vanilla:

1. The word vanilla comes from the Spanish for “little pod”. The Latin name is Vanilla planifolia.

2. Vanilla belongs to the Orchid family, and is the only edible fruit produced by any member of that family.

3. There are over 150 varieties of vanilla plants, and they all have different flavours, aromas and colours.

4. It’s indigenous to South Eastern Mexico and was known to the Aztecs who called it tlilxóchitl, meaning black flower. The flower is actually greenish white, but the vanilla bean is dark brown.

5. The flower only blooms for 24 hours and if it’s not pollinated in this time it will die and not produce a bean. In Mexico, it would be pollinated by the Melipone Bee, which isn’t found anywhere else in the world, which is why vanilla production anywhere else is extremely labour intensive as it must be pollinated by hand in a short window of opportunity.

6. Because of this, vanilla is the second most expensive spice in the world after Saffron. Luckily, only small amounts are usually needed for flavouring.

7. In Europe, vanilla was used mostly as an additive to Chocolate, but then in the early 17th century, Hugh Morgan, a creative apothecary in the employ of Queen Elizabeth I, created chocolate-free, vanilla-flavoured "sweetmeats".

8. Vanilla reached the USA courtesy of President Thomas Jefferson who brought some of the beans home in 1789. The United States is the largest consumer of vanilla in the world, followed by Europe, especially France.

9. One for the arachnophobes: Spiders don’t like vanilla so putting vanilla pods around the house will keep them away.

10. The Totonac used vanilla as a fragrance in temples and as a good-luck charm in amulets.

Character birthday

Wasp, aka Sheena Murphy. Her power is the ability to shape shift into a giant wasp with a venomous sting. She gained her powers after being stung by a wasp which had got into the lab at the nuclear reactor where she worked and been exposed to radiation. It left her with not only the ability, but a compulsion, almost like an addiction, to shape shift into a giant wasp. She did all she could to hide this at first.

A chance meeting with Captain Cricket changed her life. She became fascinated by this man with green skin who believed insects should rule the world. She stalked him for months until he became angry and despatched his henchcrickets to get rid of her. She turned into a giant wasp and very nearly beat them. Captain Cricket was duly impressed and not only recruited her to his Swarm, but began an affair with her.