Just thought I'd share, I had a heck of a time finding vanilla beans for less than $10 each at grocery stores, and don't bake enough (I'm a hobby baker) to justify buying a $50 bag (albeit a good deal) of beans. So......

I was at Cost Plus World Market and low and behold they have 2 beans for $2.99, they're Madagascar and have great flavor, are long, and are always very full of seeds.

I've since bought about 10 packs from them over a couple months and they're always consistently good, in stock, and the same price.

Just thought I'd share!

thank you for sharing this.

Also ebay is a good source for vanilla beans. I have bought a dozen for 3.00. I use them to make vanilla. I just put a bunch in a bottle of vodka. Use the rest for cakes, and fillings.

You can get them online for less. I usually get 200 and share them with other people. I use it for extract and vanilla bean.

I second eBay!

You can get about 50 beans for about 20$ It rocks! (Most of the cost is shipping, not the price of the beans, however Im sure thats how they make their money)

Real homemade vanilla is amazing!

yeah, I know u can buy them in bulk for less, that's why I brought it up b/c I don't want 200 vanilla beans.

I want 2-4 at a time.

Thanks for your input but I was posting for those who wanted a good source of small amounts of vanilla beans

may i ask how you make home made vanilla essence? i saw cathys cakes say she put some in vodka... is that what vanilla essence is??
Man i have a lot to learn about everything!!!

well thank you for sharing! honestly i just never would have even thought that it was something that could be made at home... thank you so much!

I just put it in a small bottle of vodka. All you need is the two ingredients: vanilla beans and alcohol. I started when I read here in CC about a woman who started a year ahead to make it for her whole family, then just left to bottles resting till the next Thanksgiving.

Here's tutorials, it's pretty simple:
http://www.kitchenproject.com/vanilla/vanillaextract/MakeYourOwnVanillaExtract.htm

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_vanilla_extract/

I do think you need more than a month. I let it stand for a long time. And keep adding any empty beans that I have taken the seeds from, to keep it going.