Pure Vanilla

Marty Parisien and Bill Wiedmann are bringing a new approach to an ancient product: vanilla. Bakers have used vanilla beans and extracts for centuries, but the products found on most grocery-store shelves these days are heavy with sugar and chemicals, and rarely retain much of the character of the original fragrance.

But the co-founders of Singing Dog Vanilla have partnered with farmers in Papua New Guinea to offer a fresh take on the baking staple with a product free of sugar or additives. The result is an anomaly in a seemingly straightforward market — a vanilla extract made essentially of pure vanilla.

Vanilla beans, borne of the fruit of a tropical orchid and cured for months to bring out the famous vanilla flavor, are the product of the world's most labor-intensive (and thus expensive) agricultural process. Singing Dog Vanilla hopes to bring purity and economic feasibility back to the vanilla market — they offer both beans and extracts — by taking out the sugar, freshening up the image and working directly with farmers.

Wiedmann and Parisien have recently moved their company to Eugene from Honolulu, Hawaii — and brought with them an ethic that will be right at home here. In addition to their focus on all-natural, sugar-free vanilla extracts, the folks at Singing Dog are working to establish "Fair Trade" practices within the vanilla industry. "In addition to getting a good price for vanilla," Wiedmann says, "our partner farmers get 5 percent of every dollar of sales." Wiedmann hopes that the additional income will help the farmers maintain sustainable agricultural practices.

And the name? Its origins are the same as the vanilla itself: Papua New Guinea, home to both vanilla bean farms and a strain of dog that doesn't bark, but "sings like a whale."

Check www.singingdogvanilla.com for a list of local distributors. —Jessica MacMurray Blaine

From Winter Chow 2006

click here to link to the Chow! Eugene Weekly's Restuarant Guide article

Gourmet Vanilla Beans

Pure Vanilla Extract

© 2007 Kestrel Growth Brands, Inc.