You can find your way to the vanilla factory by following your nose. In fact, the whole town of Sambava smells of the stuff, and every souvenir vendor offers you bundles of shiny brown vanilla tied with raffia, or elaborate "sculptures" fashioned from woven vanilla pods. This is the capital of Madagascar's vanilla industry which, until recently, was the country's main foreign currency earner. Most of the exported vanilla goes into American ice-cream, which is fitting since the vanilla cultivated in Madagascar came, originally, from the Americas. Vanilla planifolia, an orchid, is a native of Mexico and was introduced into Madagascar by the French.

Growing and processing vanilla is a labour-intensive activity, although the hot, humid climate of eastern Madagascar is ideally suited to its cultivation. The island has its own two species of vanilla but these have very little vanillin, the component that makes the imported variety so valuable.

The commercial vanilla orchid grows as a vine and is usually trained up a moisture-retaining tree trunk. Every small farmer in eastern Madagascar cultivates a few plants, checking them on alternate days for open flowers to pollinate by hand using a tooth pick because the insect that does the job in Mexico is absent here.

The pods, each containing tens of thousands of tiny seeds, take nine months to develop to their mature length of 15-20cm. They are then picked and taken to a vanilla processing factory to begin the long job of preparing them for the commercial market.

First they are plunged into a cauldron of hot water for two minutes and are then kept hot for two days. This process changes the colour from green to chestnut brown. Then they are exposed to the morning sun for three to four weeks, being brought inside at noon to avoid over-drying.

The pods are now ready to be sorted by size, and if you tour the factory you can watch the process. Rows of giggling girls sit in front of a large rack, measuring the length of each pod before popping it into the appropriate hole. Each hole takes about 30 pods which are then removed and tied with raffia. Expert noses and fingers check them for quality: they should be fragrant and malleable. Then they are packed into wooden crates ready for export. Workers retain some pods to sell to tourists.

Visitors buy vanilla pods and wonder what to do with them. I can never resist the oily freshness of newly-processed vanilla so have become quite creative over the years. They have many culinary uses but can also be a substitute for pomanders to scent clothing or linen and are even effective as an insect repellent.

When cooking with vanilla you can reuse the pods for as long as you remember to retrieve them - wash and dry them after each use. It enhances tea or coffee (just add a pod to the teapot or coffee filter) and can be boiled with milk to make a yummy hot drink (add a dash of brandy!) or custard. If you take sugar in tea or coffee, put some pods in your sugar tin and the flavour will be absorbed.

Eventually the pods dry out and become brittle. This is the time to grind them up with coffee beans to make a delectable vanilla coffee. And bear in mind that vanilla is not only useful for drinks and deserts; it adds a subtle flavour to chicken, duck, rice or... whatever you fancy.

And if your fancy turns to other things, remember that the Malagasy use it as a "male invigorator"!

Hilary Bradt has travelled extensively in Madagascar. She is the author of several books and the founder of Bradt Publications.

Published in Travel Africa Edition Thirteen: Autumn 2000 Text is subject to Worldwide Copyright (c)