Banana recipe

Banana recipe was Originally Posted on January 30, 2012 by lavarock

Many of us in the tropics have banana trees. There are mainly two varieties, the sweet desert-type bananas and the cooking-type called plantains.

The banana fruits develop from the banana heart, in a large hanging cluster, made up of tiers (called hands), with up to 20 fruit to a tier. The hanging cluster is known as a bunch, comprising 3–20 tiers, or commercially as a “banana stem”.

So at the moment I have a couple of trees with a total of 4 clusters with perhaps 100 bananas on each cluster.

Banana clusters seem to ripen at the same time, producing perhaps 100 ripe bananas at one time.

On the mainland you are most familiar with the sweet Williams banana because they flood the markets. They are picked green and ripened with gas before sending to stores. The Hawaiian bananas ripen on the tree and are used immediately. Why ship bananas to other places when we can enjoy them here?

We have an ice-cream banana which has a vanilla like taste and a creamy texture, but that is not what I have. I have Williams bananas. I could plant other varieties, but these were already here and prolific.

So when a cluster ripens, I cut it down (unless it is so heavy to have already fallen t othe ground itself. Then I take the first hand and have it with cereal. Those 10 or so bananas get used first.

Then I call my friends and ask them if they want bananas. When they say yes, I ask if they want 30 or 40. That is when I hear a pause and then a laugh. I can give away a few bananas at that point.

Then the rest get carried in the back of the truck to our local post office. Although they may not like us to do it, outside in the open is a counter for people to read mail. We place a box on the counter and inside put extra fruit.

So that is my recipe; I hope you didn’t hope for detailed instructions. Eat a few, give away a few t otriends. Dump the rest outside the post office

Yes, I could give or sell them to someone t osell at the farmers market, but remember, these 400 bananas I have now are just a drop in the bucket (or a cluster in a box) of those bananas available and these are not the prized bananas!

Also, don’t get me started on papayas. They grow wild on the outskirts of my property near the macadamia nut trees and the passion fruit. Then I keep having to kill all the cherry tomato plants and have to watch out for falling coconuts.

Sigh! Paradise!