GO BANANAS!

A few drops of rain and the banana plant in our community garden bursts into flower. It's a plant, not a tree - actually it belongs to the herb family!

The spectacular flower is about 50cm long and a lovely purple colour. 

As you can see, the first petal is just starting to curl - what happens next is amazing.

Beaneath each petal nestles a tiny hand of bananas waiting to be fertilised.

At this stage they are all straight and pointing downwards, but that changes as they grow and ripen. We have watched our own plant produce a small bunch each year, but the sight of thousands of bananas growing inside a plantation is fascinating - next time you're in Tenerife, take a guided tour.

Eventually all the petals fall off and as the bananas grow they curve upwards to reach for the sunlight. You need to be strong to carry one of these huge bunches on your back as the plantation workers do., but it's the only way to get them to the lorries undamaged.

Canarian bananas are smaller than the American ones and much, much tastier. Since the Banana Wars, when America tried to price their rivals out of existence, Canarian bananas are making a comeback - and rightly so.

Each week we buy some from the local farmers' market where they sell 'Grade 2' - those that haven't reached export standard. 

We're not complaining - they're just as delicious.

So there you have it - my thought for the day - go bananas, Canarian-style!

WAVING GOODBYE and Ripening Bananas

Waved goodbye to my little girl this morning at the airport - seems like only yesterday she arrived. She and her husband had a lovely nine days full of little adventures.
A chimpanzee at the Monkey Zoo wanted a grape so he offered Debs a twig in exchange. She's taken the twig home, of course - it's not everyone who can boast that they traded with a chimp.
We got blown around watching the kites and windsurfers at El Medano, where I took this photograph, and in Masca a gecko ate a bit of chewed fresh almond from Debs' hand. They experienced a calima, so now they will be more sympathetic when I complain. They have eaten a delicious steak at El Candil de Abuela, deep-fried calamari in Las Galletas, and Mongolian grill in Los Cristianos. We've had roof-terrace family barbecues, pizzas from Mercadona, fresh tuna steaks and a few glasses of wine and lots of tea. All in all, a lovely time.

Our guided tour of a banana plantation prompted a few followers to remark that "bananas ain't as good as they were". How true. But as long as the Great British Public continue to demand their bananas big and straight, that's what they'll get, and they will come from America, that land where everything is bigger and therefore must be better (?)
Exporters regulate storage temperature to delay or hasten ripening, and if they get the timing wrong you end up with fruit that's green one day and pulpy the next. We buy ours from the grower, and the flavour is exquisite. Even in tropical heat they last well over a week.
Every banana plant in America came originally from this side of the Atlantic, but all the cross-pollination to increase their size has spoiled the flavour. And not long ago there were the Banana Wars. when the Yanks tried to freeze every other producer out. It's a cut-throat business!