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Air Tahiti Magazine 52
destination photographie-souvenir du 20 janvier 1995, jour ou elle fut faite chevalier de l ordre du merite agricole. devant son auditoire convaincu, jeanne peut enfin derouler l histoire de sa vie. en premier lieu, celle de son grand-pere, chan woun kim, arrive de canton en 1918. il ouvre une epicerie a tahaa, puis decide de se lancer dans la vanille, comme preparateur. il apprend sur le tas, et en 1924 fait venir son fils et sa belle-fille restes en chine. de ce couple installe a uturoa, jeanne est la septieme des onze enfants. «nous avons tous appris a preparer la vanille, mais c est moi qui ai ete la plus coriace», s amuse jeanne. un apprentissage qui debute des le plus jeune age. les enfants non scolarises trient la vanille : les vertes dans une boite, les couleurs chocolat dans une autre. «ma petite soeur, a trois ans, triait et s endormait sur les draps. elle se reveillait couverte de petits grains de vanille», se souvient jeanne. en 1948, quatre enfants partent en chine pour faire leurs etudes. jeanne a 12 ans, elle ne fait pas partie du voyage. elle reste a uturoa, passe son certificat d etudes primaires, puis knight of the agricultural merit order, sits at the place of honor on the shelf. facing her conquered audience, jeanne can finally unfold the story of her life. at least the one she s willing to tell. it is the story of her chinese grandfather, chan woun kim, who arrived in 1918 on a sailboat from canton. he first opened a grocery store in tahaa, and then decided to launch into vanilla as a curer. he learned on the job, and in 1924 he sent for his son and daughter-in-law who had remained in china. jeanne is the seventh of this couple s eleven children. we all learned to prepare vanilla, but i was the most persistent jeanne laughs. , her apprenticeship started at the earliest age. children under five, who are not yet in school, sort the vanilla beans : the green ones in a box, the chocolate-brown in another. at three years old, my little sister was sorting vanilla and falling asleep on the sheets. she woke up covered in vanilla grains remembers , jeanne. in 1948, four of the children leave to china to study. jeanne is 12; she is not part of the trip. she stays in uturoa, gets her primary school certificate then attends the kuo min tang la vanille preparee est ridee, brune, souple,brillante et huileuse cured vanilla is wrinkled, brown, supple, shiny and oily etudie a l ecole du kuo min tang. son pere veut qu elle lui succede, «c etait son voeu, il disait que la vanille etait l avenir des raromatai». jeanne devient alors preparatrice, digne heritiere de l entreprise familiale. le decor etant pose, jeanne accepte de presenter sa profession. le ton se fait plus professoral. de mars a septembre, la haute saison se resumant a trois mois entre avril et juin, le preparateur achete la vanille aux producteurs. la vanille mure est verte, elle commence a noircir au pied, «comme une banane», elle est pleine et legerement jaunatre. il faut alors separer les gousses de leur grappe, les rincer, et commencer a les faire secher. chaque jour il faut sortir la vanille. «mon grand-pere a choisi cet endroit car son exposition au soleil nous permet de faire secher la vanille toute la journee, de 8 a 15 heures», explique jeanne. certains jours de tres beau temps elle peut enchainer deux tournees de sechage dans sa cour, derriere le magasin : une le matin, une l apres-midi. apres quatre jours de sechage, les gousses sont triees selon leur calibre. les premieres gousses pretes a la vente sont les plus courtes. elles auront demande trois mois de sechage. les plus longues reclament quant a elles six a sept mois. la vanille preparee est ridee, brune, souple, brillante et huileuse. en guise de conclusion, jeanne accepte de nous devoiler une partie de son tresor noir. religieusement, elle nous ouvre les portes du conteneur de fret qui renferme ses cartons de vanille. un bunker de parfum vanille, une sensation presque entetante. la visite est terminee. jeanne ne veut pas nous voir partir sans evoquer le futur. apres elle, ses neveux reprendront l affaire familiale. peut-etre. ce qui semble certain, selon elle, c est que son vieux batiment de bois doit etre demoli. un temoin de l histoire de la vanille qui disparaitra du coeur de uturoa. school, before going into the vanilla business. jeanne becomes a full-fledged curer, the true heir of the family business. her father wants her to take over : it was his wish, he said that vanilla was the future of the raromatai . with the backdrop painted, jeanne is now ready to explain her trade. her tone becomes more professor-like. from march to september, high season being only three months from april to june, the curer buys vanilla from the growers. mature vanilla is green, starting to darken at the tip, like a banana ; the bean is fleshy and slightly yellow.the pod clusters then have to be separated, rinsed and set out to dry, or wilt every day, the . vanilla needs to be taken out in the sun. my grandfather chose this place because its orientation allows us to dry vanilla all day long, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. jeanne explains. on beautiful days, , she can have two wilting sessions in her yard, behind the shop : one in the morning and one in the afternoon. on the other hand, rainy days are lost days, the vanilla beans will just be taken out of their cotton sacks to be aerated. after four days of sun wilting, the beans are sorted by caliber.the shortest pods are the first that can be sold.they require three months of drying. the longest pods require up to six or seven months. cured vanilla is wrinkled, brown, supple, shiny and oily. to conclude, jeanne agrees to unveil part of her black treasure. religiously, she opens the doors of the freight container that holds her cardboard boxes of vanilla. a vanilla-perfumed bunker, a smell that goes to your head. the visit is over. jeanne cannot let us go without talking about the future. after her, her nephews will take over the family business. maybe. what seems certain, though, is that her old wooden building must be razed. a survivor of vanilla history will disappear from the heart of uturoa. jeanne trie et prepare sa vanille / jeanne sorts and prepares her vanilla r e v u e d e b o r d n ° 5 2 / a i r ta h i t i / o n - b o a r d m a g a z i n e n ° 5 2 23
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