I got really tired of paying $10 for two ounce bottle I get from Forntier. I checked the ingredients list and realized I had all the ingredients at home to make it. I found this recipe at the Mothering.com messages boards. It's verbatim from the site:

2 vanilla beans
12 oz glycerin
4 oz warm water

Slit bean down middle, and scrape downs seeds. Place both in glycerin and warm water. (softens pod)
Place in dark jar or light jar in dark place. Let sit for a month or so. Shake often and offer thanks for such wonderful vanilla.

Joi

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Linda,

That's awesome joi--thank you those extracts are expensive!!!!

sounds easy, but i'm not so sure it's cost effective for me given the price in hong kong of vegetable glycerine and vanilla pods - more than US$10 each! do you really get that much more than a small bottle of Frontier gives you?

You make a good point. If I were to buy everything retail, I can get a 4oz bottle of veggie glycerin for about $4 and a vanilla pod for about $6. So to yield the 16 oz for this recipe, I need 3 bottles of glycerin ($12) and two pods ($12). So we're at $24 for (8) 2oz servings. That would be $80 if I just bought (8) 2oz bottles from Frontier. I went even further on saving and bought a 16oz bottle of glycerin online for only about $7. You can also buy vanilla beans in quantity at very good prices at beanilla.com

If you are outside the US, it may not be cheaper to make your own, but I think it would be worth researching.

Joi

it's the vegetable glycerine that is the killer. i own all of it that there is in hk and that is 3 tiny bottles that cost me $7 each. I've looked online and the price of a big bottle of NOW is great, but to send it will cost me $20-30 US so not really worth it. Am trying to find someone in the US that will buy me some and mail them by sea as that would bring the price down, but still asking folks here about that.

if i do manage to find some will give this a go.

thanks, kay

This is a great idea! I don't like the flavor of Frontier, after years of using the best-quality vanilla I could get my hands on. I will be making my own next time I get to our wonderful local spice shop.

Hi everyone. This is a bit after everyone else's posts, but I have a place to get alcohol free extracts. Country Life Natural Foods. They have lots of good products and are essentially VERY healthy. www.clnf.org. I am planning to get their alcohol free vanilla extract this next order as we have a truck that delivers to a lot of states w/ a min $400 order. Their 16 oz bottle is, I think, only $12. Let me know if you need more info. They have LOTS of organic beans, rice, nuts, seeds at VERY low prices and their quality is quite good.