Lisa Stickl, age 12, of Niagara Falls, Ont., Canada, for her question:

HOW IS VANILLA MADE?

That delicious vanilla flavor that just about everyone loves comes from a vine that is related to the orchid. The plant is widely grown in Madagascar and has been cultivated for years in Mexico.

Vanilla vines grow upward by means of air rootlets which twist around trees. They live for 10 years, producing pods five to 10 inches in length which resemble large string beans. Picked when yellow green in color, they are allowed to dry and turn brown. The pods are then cut up, including the inside pulp which is an oily mass containing seeds. By a most complex process, the vanilla flavoring is extracted from the pulp.  

Because production costs are high, a synthetic vanilla flavoring has been developed.