Simply Bananas
07-29-2011, 05:42 PM
We cooled off from heat wave in South Carolina and headed for Finca Ocho Verde in Costa Rica for seventeen 85ºf warm days and cool rainy nights. We had a lot of adventures and took many pics. I'll post the banana pics first.
An Ice Cream(helado in Spanish) and a Dwarf Namwah somehow were prepped in S.C. and ended up in Costa Rican soil on our very first day there!
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/041b8146.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/cdc4ebb4.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/81584de5.jpg
The Ice Cream stalled and should be fine.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/767fa2ff.jpg
The Namwah never missed a beat putting out 2 leaves in 14 days. The cows got loose and they not only munched off the leaves, but completely uprooted the sucker and we found it 15 feet away in relatively good shape, so we replanted it.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/dc472097.jpg
We discovered that we were actually growing a Praying Hands banana which is not a very common type in CR. That said, my wife spotted another Praying Hands on the gravel road near the farm.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/5c5b9e47.jpg The back pasture has a banana patch as well. They are not really tended much except by the squirrel monkeys. These plants are 15-20 feet tall so that will give you an idea how tall the bamboo is behind the plants!
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/236afd53.jpg
We think this is one of the Saba types. I cut it down. We made a video which I may put on youtube later. The bananas were covered with ants when I lifted them up.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/13d4c6e8.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/07b59d58.jpg
I sectioned it up with my handy banana knife!
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/eaea3134.jpg
We made maduras(sweet bananas) from the ripe ones
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/1daa4bbc.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/11de72ce.jpg
and tostones/patacones from the green ones.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/06a79087.jpg
The maduras were ok, not as good as ripe plantains. However, these green bananas made excellent patacones/tostones. We did a taste off with plantains and these won hands(pun) down.
Since we were there 17 days, we met some of the local ex-pats. All were characters! We eventually found our way to the Paradise Botanical Tropical Gardens owned and run by ex-pat Robert Beatham. He has been in the area for many years. He was an employee of the United Fruit Company before they left Golfito and stuck around with his Tico wife. He is high energy and talks rapidly with a thick Maine accent. We spent over 2 hours touring the gardens with him as we picked out our favorite plants.
My favorite were of course the Banana plants. Robert's favorite edible banana was one he called The Red Banana. Plants and fruit. His were huge!
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/d2f1e31a.jpg
He got free incinerated rice hulls from a local rice place that he used like bio-char.http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=44582&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=44582&ppuser=226&sl=s)
These are red bananas growing from the bio-char rice hulls.
I also purchased a Bordelon/Blood Banana type and a Musa coccinea. He steered me away from velutina, as he referred to it as an invasive species. The other ornamental that I did not get was one he called "the Banana Company" banana. He said that he knew an important meeting was about to happen when he walked into the room and these ornamental blooms were in a vase on the table.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/e4179853.jpg
the plants were very tall!
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/adbe0fb3.jpg
I'll be buying a few of those later!
Ok....thats mostly it for the banana portion of the trip. I'll post more after I make dinner.
An Ice Cream(helado in Spanish) and a Dwarf Namwah somehow were prepped in S.C. and ended up in Costa Rican soil on our very first day there!
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/041b8146.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/cdc4ebb4.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/81584de5.jpg
The Ice Cream stalled and should be fine.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/767fa2ff.jpg
The Namwah never missed a beat putting out 2 leaves in 14 days. The cows got loose and they not only munched off the leaves, but completely uprooted the sucker and we found it 15 feet away in relatively good shape, so we replanted it.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/dc472097.jpg
We discovered that we were actually growing a Praying Hands banana which is not a very common type in CR. That said, my wife spotted another Praying Hands on the gravel road near the farm.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/5c5b9e47.jpg The back pasture has a banana patch as well. They are not really tended much except by the squirrel monkeys. These plants are 15-20 feet tall so that will give you an idea how tall the bamboo is behind the plants!
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/236afd53.jpg
We think this is one of the Saba types. I cut it down. We made a video which I may put on youtube later. The bananas were covered with ants when I lifted them up.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/13d4c6e8.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/07b59d58.jpg
I sectioned it up with my handy banana knife!
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/eaea3134.jpg
We made maduras(sweet bananas) from the ripe ones
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/1daa4bbc.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/11de72ce.jpg
and tostones/patacones from the green ones.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/06a79087.jpg
The maduras were ok, not as good as ripe plantains. However, these green bananas made excellent patacones/tostones. We did a taste off with plantains and these won hands(pun) down.
Since we were there 17 days, we met some of the local ex-pats. All were characters! We eventually found our way to the Paradise Botanical Tropical Gardens owned and run by ex-pat Robert Beatham. He has been in the area for many years. He was an employee of the United Fruit Company before they left Golfito and stuck around with his Tico wife. He is high energy and talks rapidly with a thick Maine accent. We spent over 2 hours touring the gardens with him as we picked out our favorite plants.
My favorite were of course the Banana plants. Robert's favorite edible banana was one he called The Red Banana. Plants and fruit. His were huge!
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/d2f1e31a.jpg
He got free incinerated rice hulls from a local rice place that he used like bio-char.http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=44582&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=44582&ppuser=226&sl=s)
These are red bananas growing from the bio-char rice hulls.
I also purchased a Bordelon/Blood Banana type and a Musa coccinea. He steered me away from velutina, as he referred to it as an invasive species. The other ornamental that I did not get was one he called "the Banana Company" banana. He said that he knew an important meeting was about to happen when he walked into the room and these ornamental blooms were in a vase on the table.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/e4179853.jpg
the plants were very tall!
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/adbe0fb3.jpg
I'll be buying a few of those later!
Ok....thats mostly it for the banana portion of the trip. I'll post more after I make dinner.