Lulu Sturdy of Ndali Vanilla

Today is international Women's Day.

I have written a piece about a woman who has inspired me .. but I want to sleep on it before I post.  So if you can bear with me for a day  I will tell you all about the most incredible person who founded the Ndali Vanilla cooperative.

I've seen Lulu's amazing ability to empower the people around her to change their lives. 

Wednesday 13th March 2012 

Oh It's been full on for a few days now. It has taken me a a while to get back to my computer. 

Yesterday I was making banana muffins and chatting to the people on the sourdough course about the importance of buying fairtrade bananas whilst showing them how to use the new Fairtrade Ndali vanilla powder.

I went to bed late and dreamed of smoke mingling with the heady smell of vanilla and I can hear the voices of the Ugandan farmers and their children laughing.  Now I am awake.

Right now it’s 5 am.  I can’t go back to sleep despite my eyeballs hurting. I am so tired but I can never sleep well until I have done what I set out to do.  It has always been this way.  At times I have considered it a dammed curse, and you would think that I would stop setting myself things that I must do, but it doesn’t work like that.  A task will set itself in my mind and I must finish it, and I set to telling a story on international woman’s day about a person who has changed not just my life, but hundreds of lives.  She is one of the most extraordinary people I have ever met. It is now five days later and I must finish writing about Lulu Sturdy of NdaliVanilla or my words will stay in my head and stop me from sleeping.

I was writing the Vanilla chapter two years ago for my recipe book Prepped when I contacted Lulu and I asked if she might send me a bundle of Vanilla to use for the recipes and I would send back the photographs in return.   The vanilla that arrived was exquisite. Dark plump sweet and rich, this wasn’t like any kind of vanilla I’d seem before.  It is the most intense vanilla I had ever had with complex notes of liquorish, caramel and a whisper of smokiness.

I was thrilled that she sent such a lovely bundle. I had changed direction and returned to food as a career, with three young children and started at the bottom of the heap again. I‘d been remindedthat I was an unknown in no uncertain terms and a kindness to someone setting out on a journey is never forgotten.

Green Vanilla Beans are a cash crop. 

Over time I discovered that Lulu had turned to vanilla as a product that grew well on the rich loamy soil of the plantation she inherited unexpectedly in her late twenties. I mentioned if I could ever help with anything to ask.  Then in May last year Lulu asked for some advice on social media and invited me to visit her in Uganda when the vanilla was being harvested. I’m not sure that many husbands who come home from work at night and sit down for supper expect to be asked if he can stay at home and look after the three little ones whilst the wife flies off to West Uganda to harvest vanilla, but I am married to a man who is happy for me to be who I am.  Luckily I married a man who understands me and so in June I found myself on my way to Uganda.

I was so nervous about getting on a plane to going on my own.  I had very little confidence travelling alone.  I’m not sure where I left if but somewhere between getting married and having children I had simply lost me.  But from the moment I landed it was as though I could feel another heartbeat.  Uganda is alive.  I’ve heard others tell of this feeling in Africa.

The thing that stuck me the most when I first saw Lulu was that she has the most intense blue eyes. I knew she had had a huge challenge as a young furniture maker finding herself with such an inheritance, but she calls is Serendipity, and to keep the estate she started the Ndali Fairtrade Vanilla Company.  Easy words to read but I hadn’t really processed what starting to grow vanilla from scratch in Uganda actually involved, let alone managing to get it back to the UK and for wale in the supermarkets.  I found out just what an amazing person she as I spent the next week with Lulu meeting the farmers finding out more about the processing.

It was in that week that I got to understand how our momentary decisions affect the lives of others, and I saw how farmers not only become custodians of the land they farm through sustainable practices, but I also the reality of peoples lives being changed though being paid a fair price.   It is Lulu, who has facilitated this.  It is the actions of Lulu that has literally empowered the people.

You see in the UK most business men and women have first and foremost a commercial aspect to them. But somehow Ndali is much more than this.  It is not a cold-hearted capitalist business.  Yes Ndali buys fairtrade vanilla and processes it, but Ndali is a family.  Lulu runs the business like a mother.  She nurturing, loving and fair and she has an instinct, not to do things for people, but to facilitate them and so enabling them to be doing the best for themselves. She is strict sometimes and seriously fun other times.   The commercial aspect of actually selling these beautiful pods is simply what enables Lulu to do this. Things have not always been straightforward for Lulu.  Many of the challenges that she has faced over the past 12 years would have sent most people scurrying back to the safely of the UK, but Lulu is an extraordinary person. It’s difficult to describe Lulu’s attitude to life in words but she has an understanding and acceptance of herself and the world that seems to give her a quiet strength, far beyond anyone else’s that I have ever met.

When the new machine to grind the very best Vanilla pods into fine crystals arrived everyone was really excited.  You see there was more than one reason to celebrate this machine.  The powder is a new process …  but more than that one of the reasons that the vanilla is so exquisite is that the farmers now have the confidence to leave the pods to take longer to ripen, through being part of the cooperative.  Before the cooperative the famers cash crop of vanilla was an easy target for gangs to rob, and so they would harvest the barely ripe vanilla early  to secure their crop.

Now the Vanillin crystals literally explode out of the pod, and so Lulu invented the Ndali Vanilla powder, which uses the whole of the pod.  She started off grinding them using a coffee grinder in her kitchen to produce what can only be described as the champagne and truffle equivalent of vanilla. It’s now available in Waitrose priced at £5:99.  One tsp is the equivalent on one pod.  Which brings me back to my muffins.

It’s easy to forget that we all have the ability to make a difference in the world. Life can take over and it’s easy to loose what is essentially a really child like belief that things should be fair in life.  But what I really love in the end is that now I am home again Lulu carries on empowering people, because by using her vanilla this empowers me to change the world every time I bake a cake too, and I am part of the movement to change the world one bite at a time.

Ndali Vanilla Powder is available at Waitrose.  

The Ndali Vanilla Gift Swap

A little girl sitting with her Grandmother at the Kasemire Organic Farmers Association Uganda

On Sunday lunchtime my family stood quietly in the kitchen for once as I was waiting to listen to the BBC Radio four Food and Drink program with Sheila Dillon.  I’ve worked for my local BBC on Sundays on the BBC Radio Northampton Kitchen Garden show for about 18 months.  I love the radio its like painting pictures with sound and for longer than I can remember I have indulged in The Food Program in a quiet moment. 

But this show was different. The report from Uganda in vanilla was mine. I have no idea how the producer Dilly managed to condense the hours of recordings I sent to her into the amazing concise program I listened to but she did it and as Shelia’s familiar voice opened and William Sitwell set the scene and I was mesmerised listening to the people I interviewed and remembering the incredible difference a fair price made to their lives.

Twitter and my phone went crazy after the program. I had no idea how many people I knew were listening, and my children were so very proud of me.

Listening to the program was in someway surreal, however it certainly brought back the realization that our choices, our decisions our habits have impact far beyond cupcakes, and we have to change the way we think about food. 

On my return from Uganda I felt so different.  It’s a hard feeling to describe but I am somehow haunted and the feeling just won’t go away. It wasn't the poverty; it wasn't the desperate need of basics.  It was the unfairness.  The unfairness as decent hard working farmers who stood in front of me, looked me in the eye and said we don't want charity, we just want a fair price for what we have grown. It doesn't seem like an outrageous request. 

 "We don't want charity, we just want a fair price for what we have grown"

Lulu Sturdy, who owns Ndali estate, is the most incredible woman. She can be pretty cut off from the rest of the world at times, sometimes her electricity is out and other times there is no internet connection for days.  It's not a life of luxury ! ... she lives very simply and throws her entire energy and effort into her estate the community and the people, and she already has 20% of the vanilla farmers are on a fairtrade deal.  That is a truly amazing achievement .. but if we bakers ( and yes I mean you when I say we)  demanded more Fair Trade Vanilla then more of the people I met could benefit from a decent price for their crop.

If I am honest I've never really been radical about much.  I was pretty apathetic about most issues that people got worked up about at university and until now I've actually spent most of my life thinking about myself .. but something almost took me over as I stood and listened to these proud people asking for a just price. I’ve always had a very strong sense of fairness. As a child if something wasn't fair I'd then never give up. It's a basic almost childish instinct and so I decided that I must do something. 

The thing that really shocked me was learning that vanilla is a cash crop.  It's really easy to steal and I met farmers who had been robbed.  One poor farmer had even been tied up whilst a gang stripped his harvest in front of him, and damaged the orchids so the next crop was done for too ...  and there are no state benefits in Uganda. 

The worried farmers are then approached by unscrupulous buyers ..  and the vanilla is sold unripe, often for less than it cost to grown out of fear.  This cheap vanilla isn't good though. It has not had the time to mature into the beautiful plump dark rich vanilla that makes our cakes taste so amazing.   

As I chatted to the farmers it became clear that Fair Trade has been helping the farmers to form associations to close down the places stolen vanilla can be sold.  As well as teaching the farmers to grow sustainably Lulu and new team also work really hard to persuade the farmers to keep their crop on the vines to ripen naturally ..  which is why the vanilla is so flavoursome. 

I realise that I can't cart off the entire baking population to Uganda...  but I can bring Ndali Vanilla to my own community  ... other food bloggers .. and so I have arranged The Ndali Vanilla Gift Swap on Monday 24th September and I am delighted that it will be held at Fortnum and Mason.  

It is also the start of The Big Fair Bake Campaign which seemed so appropriate. 

So  .. on the afternoon of Monday the 24th September at 3pm I am inviting Bloggers to take part in the Ndali Vanilla Fair Trade Gift Swap.   I have just 50 spaces and lots of Vanilla to send out.

On the day 

You will need to bring along your gifts to Fortnum & Mason's 4th floor at 3pm (your forms must be attached securely in an envelope.)  Your gift needs to be entered into the swap by 3.45pm. Your gift get’s a number and a category.  At the end of the event you get to pick out the tickets (According to how many gifts you brought with you) out of the bowl and leave with the gifts correlating to the number that you have picked from the bowl it's like a raffle and you will leave with someone else’s gifts.  I wanted to add a bit of gentle competition to it all ...  so I am delighted that author and Sunday Times food writter Lucas Hollweg has kindly offered the very difficult job of judging the best the gifts. 

 The timetable is as follows: 

4 - 6pm Lucas & team will judge the entries and pick the winning gifts.

6.15 pm you pick a ticket out of all the entries and you leave with a gift.  

The gift categories are:

1 Biscuits

2  Cake  / cupcake

3 Sweets
4 Preserve .... * NEW catagory 

*LOOK *

The Prizes are as follows

1 Best Biscuit - New color Kenwood K-Mix

2 Best Cake / cupcake - New color Kenwood K-Mix

3 Best Sweet - New color Kenwood K-Mix
4 Best Preserve ... * - Fortnum and Maison Hamper 

and runner up prizes New color Kenwood Hand Mixers and Blenders 

Prizes are from the leading brand of kitchen appliances Kenwood.  (hurrah for British design!) 

The Rules

You must first email me with your postal address so I can send you some Ndali Vanilla.   Recipes@vanessakimbell.com

You must then share your  Fair Trade Ndali Vanilla recipe and blog about your gift using the Fortnum & Mason Ndali Vanilla / Fortnum logo used here in your blog post.

You may enter up to 3 categories. Minimum entry is 1 category. 

Any combination of ingredients can be used .. e.g. strawberry and vanilla or chocolate and vanilla .. or just plain vanilla. ..  the choice is yours.  

You must provide an envelope with your forms (that I will email)  inside and your name and email address. Ingredients must be clearly marked to accommodate any food allergies.

All gifts must be packaged in a way that is appropriate for someone to open them to judge easily and for someone else to transport home. 

Prizes will be sent directly to the winners.  If you win you will need to leave your address with me at the end of the day. 

All decisions by the judge are final and there are no cash or product alternatives. 

All the gifts must be handmade using Ndali Vanilla and any other Fair Trade ingredients wherever possible.   

You must be over 18 to participate. 

Some of the recipes will be published and therefore if you participate then you also agreeing that your recipe may be published (and credited to you) at a later date.

Please note that it is free to participate.  I am delighted that the Fair Trade Foundation will be coming along and they are providing gift bag with some more Fair Trade & Kenwood goodies in to take home with you.

My sincerest thanks to Fortnum and Mason and Kenwood for their generosity and to Lucas Hollweg from the Sunday Times for helping show that we can change things for the better one bite at time.

Green vanilla pods that have been left on the vine to mature are plump and full of vanillin