Apple bananas - Yum

Yes they're called apple bananas by the local folks. I'm sure they have an official name, but who cares. All I know is that they're 100 times better than any banana that you'll find in a US grocery store. They're only about 4" long with a slightly tart taste. After you've tried these, all other bananas are just sweet, with little real flavor.

About three years ago, Rene bro't us a few plants and put them behind the house and fairly near the road. He told me that that was the best soil for them. We now have robust plants and more bananas than we can possibly eat.

These photos show a new bunch starting from the bloom, which is that strange long purple thing. You can see the bunch starting above it. I'm sure that most folks know that bananas grow "up" as you can see in the closeup of a bunch. In the photo of the plants themselves you might be able to see three bunches, very close to cutting. Then you see the bunch sitting on our veranda. Rene cut it about four days ago and they were all very green. They actually turned yellow yesterday. Yes, it happens that fast. Once they turn, they ripen really fast. Because these are so yummy and small, we each eat about three each time, but you do get a little tired of them after about three days of eating as many as you can. By then they're starting to approach overripe and you have to fight off the bugs. I suspect that most of the ones ripening now (there are 8 bunches right now) will go to friends, altho' most folks have their own.

An interesting thing about these plants is that they're much like raspberries. The fruit grows on an old stalk. The stalks look a lot like a tree, but they're not. One bunch grows on each stalk, so they cut the stalk off at about 4'to collect the bunch. The plants are constantly putting out new shoots which will then grow more fruit. You can also dig up the small new shoots and transplant for more bananas (which you'll have to try to give away).