It’s almost upon us again, the most important date on the LittlePod calendar: October 17th, International Real Vanilla Day. This is a time to once more raise a toast to our favourite ingredient, and to underline its importance to the planet and its people; a time to celebrate with good friends and with food; a time to give our thanks to the vanilla farmers and their families in the Equatorial regions, tending this precious crop to the benefit of us all.

It seems difficult to believe that twelve months have passed since we last did this, our weekend staycation at beautiful Bickleigh Castle still fresh in our memories here. This autumn, we’ll be marking the occasion at another of our favourite haunts, Chelsea Physic Garden. This is a place of great significance to LittlePod.

Janet – our MD and founder – is proud to be a patron of London’s oldest botanic garden, established in 1673, and it was here that, in 2011, we gathered to celebrate LittlePod’s first anniversary. Eleven years later and looking for a venue to host our latest event for International Real Vanilla Day, this was the obvious choice. In 2021, the Chelsea team grew vanilla pods in their glasshouses – a remarkable achievement in the heart of the city. Given our fascination with an orchid that is notoriously difficult to grow, we can’t wait to find out more, with a Q&A session with Jess from the Garden team amongst the exciting events scheduled on the 17th.

Like to join us? There’s lots planned and a great deal to look forward to…

Including a guided tour and walk through the gardens, a talk from LittlePod alumni Aisha Stenning, who is these days UNILEVER’s Senior Global Innovations Officer, and a live online appearance from Dr Made Setiawan, our vanilla farmer, who will join us from the LittlePod orchard in Indonesia, we’ll be hosting three sessions through the day, with morning coffee (9am-12pm), lunch (12pm-2pm) and afternoon tea (3pm-5pm) for our guests. Our first invitations have gone out already, but we do have additional free places available. Like to come along and get involved? Please email or contact us here for further details or to register an interest.

For those unable to join us in London, there are other ways to take part on International Real Vanilla Day. You could bake a cake or send us a message or recording to share on social media. Please keep following for further details and, in the meantime, do be sure to mark our most important date on your calendar!