Dames Who Read April 2026: The Rarest Fruit

Some of you may remember how charmed and enlightened we were when we read “The Food Explorer”, which was all about the discovery and importation of various food items, most of which are extremely common today. Our current book is all about one of our favorites of those items, vanilla, and how the conundrum of pollinating the flowers was finally solved by a young slave, whose story then went unrecorded for many years. From the book’s cover is this review: “A two-century-old story brought back to life by (Belem’s) smart,voluptuous, no-nonsense pen balancing fantasy, Creole mythology and Reunionese folklore”

Author Gaelle Belem carefully researched the very few existing records of this discovery and its discoverer. Based on this limited, tho accurate, amount of information, she has pieced it into a fascinating and historical novel. Read the book and join us on a field trip to Waukegan for a facility tour and lunch discussion. We will taste various vanilla flavors and hear the story of the Nielsen-Massey family business. Long time Dame Camilla Nielsen and her third-generation son, Matt Nielsen, will welcome us and are excited to host The Dames Who Read.

This will be a special day and we look forward to this April Field Trip!

NOTE: If you will be driving and have room for a passenger or more, please let Judith(judith@judithdunbarhines.com) know – we will try to help everyone with car pool information.

Date: April 11, 2026

Time:  11am-2pm

Location: Nielsen-Massey Vanillas Inc. (1550 Shields Drive, Waukegan, Illinois USA 60085)

Price: $45 includes light lunch

Additional notes.

A portion of proceeds will benefit the Chicago chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier, an organization of women in food, beverage and hospitality working to support the next generation of women in the industry.

Thank you!