when i was a kid my dad baked a lot, and made his own vanilla extract by soaking the beans in vodka!
vodka is often made using rye, a thing we have access to now, and we have vanilla beans we can currently do nothing with.
i propose we can make vodka using rye (or potatoes, which is also sometimes used). and then by soaking the beans in the vodka (mayhaps in the pickler, vanilla bean + vodka, no vinegar?) we get vanilla extract!
this could also then be used to make new recipes!