Theres nothing bland about the vanilla that Amy Bugbee makes in her Astoria home.

Thats why she named it XXX Vanilla, to bring back to memory the exotic nature of the imported spice.

Selling her home-brewing kits for the extract as well as vanilla sugars in flavors such as lavender and habanero at the Astoria Sunday Market, Bugbee dreams of one day owning a shop to spread the word about how easy it is to make your own vanilla. And how much healthier it is, too.

People really dont know about vanilla. I didnt really know about vanilla but I found out that when you buy a vanilla yogurt in the store that says natural vanilla flavorings, that has absolutely nothing to do with a vanilla bean, Bugbee said. That has to do with other substances that the (Food and Drug Administration) has approved to be used as a vanilla flavoring, which includes wastewater pulp from paper mills, and beaver sacs.

I know a ton of vegans who are probably using this natural vanilla flavoring, not realizing theyre ingesting animal products. So I think people are really surprised by that.

Castoreum is is the yellowish secretion of the castor sac of the beaver that, in combination with the beaver’s urine, is used to mark territory. It is used in both perfumes and as a food additive.

A vanilla bean, however, left in a jar for 26 weeks with liquor and water can be reused for a year, she said.

I dont know how beaver sac can be more economical than vanilla beans when you think about that, she said. Vanilla beans are expensive but they are reusable.

But the reasoning behind the vanilla making had less to do with beavers and more to do with Bugbees baking addiction, which required a lot more of the extract than she could afford.

I couldnt afford my own habit of baking because vanilla is so expensive in stores. So I started doing research and realized I could make my own and then I started brewing it, she said. And then I started brewing a lot of it because it was fun to make. And then I started sending it to friends as gifts and stuff like that.

Then people started wanting to buy it so I started selling it on the Internet.

But a prolonged period of unemployment when she moved to Astoria was just the push Bugbee needed to start selling the vanilla to a larger market.

I invested some of my unemployment, while I was looking for work, into the vanilla business. So I saved a little bit of money each week of my unemployment and started buying larger quantities of vanilla beans from my importers, and bottles, and it sort of just went from there, she said. This is my first year doing the Sunday Market.

Her vanilla beans come from Madagascar and Tahiti currently. She looks forward to trying beans from India soon, as well. Shes working on new flavors of vanilla sugar as well, which could debut quarterly in a set of four, if all goes well, she said.

Im interested in trying some others, she said of vanilla beans. Ive been sampling around, different companies and beans that grow. India is supposed to have really good vanilla, but theyre either in short supply or you have to buy a ton and I am not in the ton level yet. Im still producing pretty small. I pretty much do it just once a week for the Sunday Market and for Internet sales. Its small potatoes still but Im hopeful.

Im hopeful to someday be going to the farms where I am buying vanilla beans from, maybe having a vanilla bean farm at some point. Thats the goal. And to have everybody making their own vanilla extracts because its so easy and its so much better and its so much healthier and puts the FDA in check for pushing these weird substances on people, she said. We should all be getting back to making jams, jellies, whatever we can do ourselves, I think thats important and I think well see more of that. Thats happening already.

Bugbee has been in Astoria for two years. She lived on the Long Beach peninsula prior to that, after a move with her husband, Shane, from Minnesota. Shes originally from Chicago.

She and Shane have been married for 17 years.

Theres not one thing that Amy bakes that isnt really spectacular. Even if I think it sounds bad, he said. She made lavender vanilla and I?thought, ugh, sounds horrible, like soap to me. But it was really good! Everything she bakes is phenomenal.

In her spare time, Bugbee offers classes and seminars for cookies, pies and vanilla products. She calls it cookie camp. She offers cookie catering for people, and sells and ships baked goods through her website www.worldsgreatestvanilla. com

She won a ribbon for her vanilla lavender scones at the County Fair last year.

For more information, contact Bugbee on Facebook or Twitter, or email her at 365@ayearatthewheel.com

She will begin a fundraising effort toward the end of the month to help expand her business and says there will be great incentives for supporters.

Chelsea Gorrow