$10 bucks for an ounce? Wow! Here in the Willamette valley I was paying around $5.
Then one day at Costco started selling good vanilla beans for $13. You’d get two tubes each containing five large beans. I stocked up as everyone else I’d see selling them would have two tiny dried up beans for roughly the same price.
I started making my own vanilla by buying a fifth of vodka, cutting a bean or two into pieces and putting them in. Set it on the counter and give it a shake a couple times a week. In three months it’s perfect. I can even reuse the beans for a second round.
I also make orange, lemon and coffee extract. I plan on making mint and coconut!
There are only 2 of us, kids are grown and are giving us more grands and G. grands. Scattered in different states. I don’t do much baking, I’m not the sweets eater, hubby is. Basic meals mostly. Easier to buy him a box of cookies or bag of candy.