Monday, October 17th was International Real Vanilla Day 2022. It was the perfect day. The most beautiful autumnal weather, the loveliest people and a prestigious venue beyond compare, it had the lot. For the LittlePod team and our guests at the Chelsea Physic Garden and for all those involved online and from afar, it was an occasion rooted in connection and commonality, a time to talk and to tell our stories, to build relationships and to be at ease together.

It was a time to share messages: from Blue Ventures and Dr Vik Mohan, just back from Madagascar; from Dr Made Setiawan – our vanilla farmer – recorded at the LittlePod orchard in Indonesia; from Aisha Stenning, LittlePod alumni and Senior Global Sustainable Innovation Manager at Unilever; from LittlePod HQ, where our Campaign for Real Vanilla continues to educate consumers about a precious crop and those responsible for its survival, encouraging the farmers in the Equatorial regions to keep cultivating the delicate vanilla orchid, in the process preserving the fragile rainforest environment and improving the air we all breathe.

In this we include the family of Irine, LittlePod’s Voice of Africa in Tanzania, to whom we raised a toast beneath the trees of Royal Hospital Road. Our worlds are miles apart, but our connection is clear and our values aligned, something we celebrated amongst lots more of like mind in London, from our guests to our hosts, whose knowledge of the natural world had us fascinated as we strolled paths and explored an environment that is far from the every day, comfortable, companiable and above all inspired.

To our hosts and our guests, to Irine, Aisha, Vik and Made, and to everybody who came together on International Real Vanilla Day, we send thanks.

Vanilla hugs to you all. It was the perfect day.