JoeReal

the webcam that I have is in fact a tiny web server, and you can assign its own IP address, does not need a computer when running, tunnel it through the internet by NAT mapping to your firewall router, and you can connect to it wired or wireless. I use it to monitor my yard for pesky birds! I got tired of it. Will turn it back on and reconfigured for security system. The webcam is cheap, less than $80 after rebates.

jeffreyp

Mike,

It's meaningless for me to grow a cg in south florida. Orinoco's are best used as plantains and are inferior to desert bananas. It is my preference for unique sweet varieties of bananas. I can certainly give the benefit of the doubt to those on this board who claim it's unique. But I have seen PLENTY of orinocos and it's still my opinion that it is. I think even Jeff mentions it's an orinoco type. I suppose given the apparent marginal growing conditions in California if you can get something to reliably grow there and fruit, then by all means propagate it. In south florida, orinoco or any of it's clones are inferior as bananas. Of all those on this board claiming it's unique, where is YOUR genetic proof it's not an orinoco? I have said that the fruit has the same characteristics of orinoco, the plant has the same shape and morphology as orinoco. The opinions of others I have read on other message boards state the fruit and taste are really no different than dwarf orinoco. My opinion is not based on genetic scientific fact, but there isnt any definitive support that it is unique either from those who insist that it is. Even growing plants side by side are not 100 percent meaningful either.

mikevan

If you're running Linux it would be easy to program a motion detector using one of those puppies...

Be well,
Mike

jearl

Joe... What brand is yours? Mine is Panasonic wireless ( well you still have to plug it in to an electrical outlet. ) The nice thing about panasonic is that you get a free lifetime account with a netviewcam.com account... they do the network forwarding.

Jeff

jearl

Mike... Mine came with motion detection software. I just never did set it up.

Jeff

JoeReal

I suspect it is linux running on Java scripting based on view source of my browser. The brand name is DLink. It was originally for sale at $199, and went on sale with rebates so it got my wallet's vote.

jearl

You beat me to the punch with your last statement. I was going to post a pick of three 6 ft tall bananas grown side by side... two were CG, the other was an Orinoco Dwarf.... trust me even to the untrained eye you can see the difference. ( saves me the hassle of sorting through my mem stick and resizing the pic )
This said, If I lived in frost free southern FL or Hawaii.... I probably would grow Coconut palms instead of Parajubeas ( or Cashews rather than Macadamias ).... but hey, if you live in a climate that receives fairly regular freezes... like I do , then its much better to grow the next best thing.

Like I said before.... A "good" tasting banana that is hardy in your area.... is much better than growing an "excellent" tasting banana that freezes to the ground every year. DEAD EQUALS NO FRUIT!

Taste of course is subjective and can be influnenced by growing conditions.
I once tried growing my favorite banana " Hawaiian apple banana " ( a local name ) here in Modesto.... didn't even make it to Jan 1st... the cold killed it deader than dead. Cal Gold.... just chugged on through the winter and fruited the following summer. By Oct ..I was eating bananas right and left..making banana smoothies banana splits etc.

A great man once said "There are none so blind as those who will not see "

I might add one of my own... The view is always different.... depending on which side of the table you are on!

Enjoy the fact that you live in climate where most bananas will thrive.
Unfortunatly... I live in a climate where very few will fruit ...as does most of the US.

Like I have said before... If you want... I will supply you with free plant material... you can compare plants genetically.





Jeff

Westwood

Since you all know Im a very Nice person . I have a Confession to make .

I know how to make moonshine and white lighting and own a steel.

So Joe wanna trade some sauce for some sauce recipes ?

Im interested in a Citrus wine one If you know of anyone who knows how to make it . I myself havent tried it . but i believe it to be as good as My Citrus milkshakes .winks Tammy

jeffreyp

I thank you for the offer, but I can't reciprocate given the draconian laws about shipping plant material into california. I have quite a collection, maybe you could have a friend ship to you from another state? Since I run a nursery I can't take the risk of shipping you something directly.

jeffreyp

That's very cool. I'd like to build a still using the plans from http://www.amazingstill.com/

I brew beer and wine, and I think it would be fun to get some turbo yeast and make a batch of homemade everclear. or how about some banana moonshine?

Carolina

*gasps* Tammy, I'm shocked! But not really.. you probably used banana paper for those things it shouldn't been used for in Panama, huh? J/K.

Okay, guys... as soon as I can get myself up from here I'll post a pic of my so called Cali Gold. The one that refuses to pup.

JoeReal

Tammy,

I have used this recipe with great success, even for a beginner. This is not my recipe:

Ancient Honey Orange Wine

1 gallon batch

3 1/2 lbs Clover or your choice honey or blend (will finish sweet)
1 Large orange (later cut in eights or smaller rind and all)
1 small handful of raisins (25 if you count but more or less ok)
1 stick of cinnamon
1 whole clove ( or 2 if you like - these are potent critters)
optional (a pinch of nutmeg and allspice )( very small )
1 teaspoon of Fleishmann’s bread yeast ( now don't get holy on me--- after all this is an ancient mead and that's all we had back then)
Balance water to one gallon

Process:

Use a clean 1 gallon carboy

Dissolve honey in some warm water and put in carboy

Wash orange well to remove any pesticides and slice in eights --add orange (you can push em through opening big boy -- rinds included -- its ok for this mead -- take my word for it -- ignore the experts)

Put in raisins, clove, cinnamon stick, any optional ingredients and fill to 3 inches from the top with cold water. ( need room for some foam -- you can top off with more water after the first few day frenzy)

Shake the heck out of the jug with top on, of course. This is your sophisticated aeration process.

When at room temperature in your kitchen, put in 1 teaspoon of bread yeast. ( No you don't have to rehydrate it first-- the ancients didn't even have that word in their vocabulary-- just put it in and give it a gentle swirl or not)(The yeast can fight for their own territory)

Install water airlock. Put in dark place. It will start working immediately or in an hour. (Don't use grandma's bread yeast she bought years before she passed away in the 90's)( Wait 3 hours before you panic or call me) After major foaming stops in a few days add some water and then keep your hands off of it. (Don't shake it! Don't mess with them yeastees! Let them alone except its okay to open your cabinet to smell every once in a while.

Racking --- Don't you dare
additional feeding --- NO NO
More stirring or shaking -- Your not listening, don't touch

After 2 months and maybe a few days it will slow down to a stop and clear all by itself. (How about that) (You are not so important after all) Then you can put a hose in with a small cloth filter on the end into the clear part and siphon off the golden nectar. If you wait long enough even the oranges will sink to the bottom but I never waited that long. If it is clear it is ready. You don't need a cold basement. It does better in a kitchen in the dark. (Like in a cabinet) likes a little heat (70-80). If it didn't work out... you screwed up and didn't read my instructions (or used grandma's bread yeast she bought years before she passed away) . If it didn't work out then take up another hobby. Mead is not for you. It is too complicated.
If you were successful, which I am 99% certain you will be, then enjoy your mead. When you get ready to make different mead you will probably have to unlearn some of these practices I have taught you, but hey--- This recipe and procedure works with these ingredients so don't knock it. It was your first mead. It was my tenth. Sometimes, even the experts can forget all they know and make good ancient mead.

JoeReal

Plastic stills do not produce good product. In a science fair project while I was in the Philippines, I made a very efficient reflux distiller that can distill mash to fuel grade alcohol, 190 proof, in just one pass.

Copper pipes and small marbles are the major components which are still very cheap to obtain even today.

AnnaJW

I say we should have a Bananas.org party. We start at JoeReals and move up the coast to Tammy's!!!

__________________
-Anna Banana -

Living my life in MMORPG's

JoeReal

You may not make it past of my place,

I sponsored a wine tasting event of just 22 wines at my place about 2 weekends ago. Most participants were drunk halfway through the wine list.

I put score sheets out, on blind taste tests by pouring commercial wines and my wines into the same type clean bottles with just the number as labels.

Was surprised to find out that my tomato wine scored the highest, with near perfect scores, followed by blueberry wine, then raspberry wine, then by cran blueberry combo, while the commercial Mondavi, Yellowtails, Ravenswood wines were ranked lower. Banana and citrus wine were midway scorers and were still ranked significantly higher than the commercial wines.

Generally my officemates ranked the sweet red wines as the highest scorers, followed by sweet whites, then by dry reds, and the lowest scorers were the dry white wines.

The sweet red wines are very rare to find from the California wine shelves.

I also have port wines from tomatoes, Hardy Korean Pear. I'm dyring to try my California Gold Sherry wines, just under two months more.

If you're in the area, just drop me an email and we'll have impromptu wine tasting.

AnnaJW

Wow! That kind of wine tasting is well worth the drive. Or maybe the train? LOL

My dad made Pomegranite wine. Everyone loved it. He passed in Nov. 2003, and I'm so sorry I never had him teach me to make it. I had no problem drinking it though. I still have some carefully put away that is more of a Sherry now. Smooth stuff!

__________________
-Anna Banana -

Living my life in MMORPG's

jeffreyp

Are you using store bought juice or fresh juice for your fruit and veggie wines? I might make some grapefruit and a separate batch of some welch's grape wine this weekend.

Gabe15

Ok, so I havent read pretty much any of this thread, but from what Ive seen, there seems to be some confusion as to what is supposed to be different about 'California Gold' as opposed to regular 'Dwarf Orinoco'. Even though the plants and fruit may be the same, thats not what is meant to be different, the thing that is supposed to be different is its cold hardiness which has no relation to plant morphology. Im not supporting or denying anything, Im just putting it out there that it can indeed have different genetic while appearing the same as another plant. Its in the way it grows, not the way it looks or what kind of fruit it produces.

__________________
Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

JoeReal

Jeffrey, I have 355 kinds of fruiting plants in my yard, and have made 60 different kinds of wines so far.

Other samples of my exotic wines from the non-formal fruit plants are:
Spicy Hot Charantia wine made from my bitter gourd melon, tomato and hot Philippine peppers (siling labuyo).
Lemon Grass wine - truly aromatic
Ginger wine - very woody as it gets older
Ginseng Honey wine (I have to buy American Ginseng roots, it costs more than Ae ae, believe me!)
Coffee wine (the coffee came from the store)

And flowers too:
Dandelion wines
Hibiscus wine - amazingly tastes like grape wines

and of course I also make grape wine, the easiest ones to make.

I love my tomato port wine the best, followed by Korean Pear Port wine. They tasted better than Cognac. They're all gone now.

Was too busy with room addition project this year, did not make any wines in 2006, but I have been bottling wines. I've got 30 gallons left to bottle and will give away as gifts the coming holiday season.

AnnaJW

Maybe we need a place here just for "juices"?

I made a drink tonight from 99 Bananas and orange soda. I think adding some vanilla ice cream would make it taste just like a popsicle. But with a bit of a kick.

__________________
-Anna Banana -

Living my life in MMORPG's