randombananafan

Hurricane Isaac led me here. No, really!

I live in New Orleans, and as some of you probably know, we recently had a big hurricane come through. It blew down a bunch of stuff around here. Some of what it blew down were the uncultivated banana trees across the street in someone's deserted yard.

I live in the Lower Ninth Ward, so deserted yards are pretty common around here.

Well after the storm the lights were out forever and we were all pretty bored. My upstairs neighbors went over to chop themselves off a bunch of green bananas from the fallen tree, since they figured it was a shame to let them go to waste. A day later I figured that was a good idea and got one of the other ones. They hadn't been nearly ripe yet and stayed green a long time, mostly they are still green. I've had a hard time getting them to ripen.

We took some funny pictures though, and I made a video while lip-synching to the banana boat song.

Anyway - upon getting at least one of them ripe by setting it on the counter in full sun for days, I ventured to eat it. It tasted... rather banana-y. They are smaller than store-bought bananas though, the peels are thicker, much thicker, and they have seeds in the middle! A row of seeds, right down the center. They seemed edible but I just picked them out as they were a little crunchy, plus I was intrigued by the thought of growing my own banana trees at some point. I guess most people here just grow them for their looks.

When I was young I had been told - obviously erroneously - that no more banana seeds existed, they had all been bred out, and all banana trees grew from cuttings. So now, as I have found out that this is totally wrong, I am curious. I also have recently found out from history class that the banana comes from Africa and isn't native to the Americas at all. Apparently I have a lot to learn about my favorite fruit!