Maybe you knew this already, but just in case…check out this email from Lindsy:

Hi Laura! I was just telling some friends today about my adventures in making vanilla extract. I live near Appleton, WI and this area is sometimes referred to as the Paper Valley because there are so many paper mills in the area. Anyway, one of my friends was saying that her husband works at a paper mill and part of his job is to collect the “run-off” from paper pulp. They then sell this by-product to companies that make it into imitation vanilla extract. How disgusting is that!?! I did a little Googling to see if this is for real, and found this on Wiki Answers:

“Imitation vanilla is manufactured either from clove oil (eugenol) or as a breakdown product of lignin from a conifer (e.g., spruce, Picea).”

I really don’t want to flavor my food with the run off from paper pulp, so I’ll stick to making homemade vanilla… :)

Pssst! Grab your vanilla beans from Olive Nation. They offer us a 15% off coupon code: home. And we get free shipping on orders over $50!