Featured in National Geographic's Meet the Maker: Our Vanilla Paradise Journey
A real honour to be featured! Click to read!
We're still pinching ourselves! Vanilla Paradise Nevis has been featured in the June edition of National Geographic's "Meet the Maker" series!
What is National Geographic's "Meet the Maker" Series?
For those unfamiliar with the series, National Geographic's "Meet the Maker" showcases artisans, farmers, and creators from around the world who are doing something unique with food and agriculture. It's the kind of recognition that puts you on the map alongside some incredible people - the cheese makers in the Alps, coffee growers in Ethiopia, spice cultivators in India. And now, vanilla in Nevis.
Aerial view of Nevis Peak shrouded in clouds - early Spanish sailors mistook these white clouds for snow, giving the island its name "Nieves" (Spanish for snow).From Geneva to Paradise: How One Accountant Discovered Nevis' Sweet Secret
When Gina Empson, Founder of Vanilla Paradise Nevis, left her successful Geneva accountancy firm for the tiny Caribbean Island of Nevis, she never expected to uncover a business opportunity that would change everything. What she found on the steep slopes of Nevis’s dormant volcano might surprise you - and it's sweeter than you'd imagine.
“The Caribbean island of Nevis inspired me to give up my life as an accountant in Europe and set up a pioneering vanilla farm.”
Read the article to discover how sometimes the best adventures begin when you can't even find your destination on a map.
What started as a backyard experiment has grown into something we never quite imagined. Now with more than 2,000 vanilla orchids, having welcomed 600+ visitors on our eco-tourism tours and adding a discovery trail at the historic Hamilton Sugar Mill which adjoins the farm, we will be opening a welcoming Vanilla Café and Shop later this year.
The National Geographic team really captured how this journey has been as much about sharing Nevis with the world as it has been about growing vanilla.
More Than Just Vanilla - Sharing Nevis with the World
What we think the National Geographic piece understood is that we're not just farming. We're trying to show people why this little island captivated Gina so completely. There's something magical about Nevis - the way morning mist rolls off the volcanic peak, how everything seems to thrive in this climate. Perhaps that's what makes our story worth telling.
What strikes us most about being included in "Meet the Maker" is that it recognizes the journey as much as the destination. From Swiss accountancy to Caribbean agriculture isn't exactly a conventional career path, but Nevis has a way of making unconventional things feel perfectly natural.
A big thank you to brilliant journalist Lucy McGuire for writing the article, Rodney’s Cuisine, traditional Caribbean cuisine, in Charlestown for the rum cake recipe and Nhekelon Nisbett, a talented local photographer and videographer who captures our journey so well.
From flower to flavour: The vanilla journey at Vanilla Paradise Nevis - hand-pollinated orchid blooms develop into green vanilla beans, which will be carefully processed and cured to create the beans that will produce our premium beans and then all the vanilla products that we love!
