Earlier this month we visited a rubber plantation in the foothills of Vagamon, Kerala. Vanilla County Plantation offers tents and rooms to tourists who are looking for an alternative to the hotel experience. Homestay accommodations are often way-off the tourist track and therefore offer meals as part of their package. Our experience has been that the food is usually exceptional and almost always prepared from ingredients grown nearby.

While the Plantation’s principal crop is rubber they also have mango,  jackfruit, banana and coconut trees. They grow black pepper, cardamon, curry leaves, allspice, lemon grass, coffee and of course vanilla.

The rubber trees take about seven years to reach maturity during which time they grow pineapple and bananas. Once the trees reach maturity they can be tapped. A diagonal cut is made through the bark and the white latex flows into a small cup. When the latex dries it can be peeled off – the original rubber band!

The latex is collected and processed daily into sheets which are run through a press, stamped with the plantation’s brand and hung to dry in the sun.

The dried sheets of rubber are baked for a few days in a wood fired oven after which they are sold for manufacture into tires and other rubber products.

We spent a few hours hiking through the plantation stopping on the way for a cool dip in a nearby river.