Homemade Vanilla Extract

I just looked on The Spice House and they have Madagascar bean for 1.89 a bean and 5.24 for 3 beans. I used 5 beans in my bottle. Take one tablespoon out of the vodka before adding the beans. I didn’t but will in the future. There was plenty of space for shaking the beans in the bottle but after a few months the space filled up and had very little room in the top of the bottle. As you know our store bought vanilla extract comes in a amber bottle but this Swedish vodka bottle is clear. I keep mine in a wall cabinet for the darkness and also it is a cabinet that I am in at least once a day. Rule of the house is if you open this cabinet for the toaster or paper plates you must shake the vanilla bottle.The vanilla recipes said the shake every day and wait 6 months to a year for it to ripen. I started mine on New Years day so it is easy to remember how old it is. You need to slice each bean from the bottom to the top but leave intact at the steam end. I will add a drawing to the vodka bag so you will know what I mean. My recipe comes from a blog called Heavenly Homemakers. She makes a large amount and I did the math for our much smaller quantities. Check out the blog. I think you would like it. She mentions ordering the vanilla beans from Olive Nation. You can also get them from Amazon. I have to say that the ones I ordered from The Spice House were so moist and fresh. I will try to get my hands on us a couple of amber bottles from a source mentioned on Heavenly Homemakers.