bananimal

Visited Nicks 5 acre banana farm on Lake Okeechobee Saturday and loaded up big time. Took a dozen local banana nuts with me including 2 trailers. With 2000 mats in the ground for 3 years there were about 15,000 pups to choose from.

One guy wanted a chunk of Kandarian corm and it took him quite a while to dig it out. Had to weigh over 50 lbs.

One gal loaded up her trailer with 20 pups, or so, and 3 or 4 bunches of fruit. While digging pups she had unfortunately ripped open the back of her pants. Didn’t even slow her down. She just kept on pulling up pups with a shovel in one hand and the seat of her pants bunched up in the other.

There were extra machetes and we started looking for fruit. The Hua Moa was a favorite, and most folks took home a hand or a whole bunch. Also harvested were Dwarf Namwah, Misi Luki (the Agristarts one), FHIA-17, Gran Nain and several plantains. For myself, I cut down a sampling of Burro, Dwarf Puerto Rican, Dwarf Superplantain and a hand of Hua Moa.

I also cut my finger on my digging bar helping someone pull out a big sucker. Just wrapped it up tight in a hand towel and kept going.

It was like a frenzy. Plant lust, plain and simple! Most of us were covered in the famous black muck soil of Lake O by the end of the 3 hour dig-fest.

It was a real great day – Thanks Nick!

Dalmatiansoap

Way to go guys!

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oakshadows

Dan it is good to see that you got to take advantage of his unfortune. I wanted to go done but it is too far for me to travel. We hope Nick finds another nice spot to grow. A lot of labor lost and a lot of labor to start with the new crop. Good luck Nick.

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"What this country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds."

Nicolas Naranja

Thanks for you guys coming, it helps me immensely to try to liquidate as much as I can so I can have a little capital to find a new piece of land. I hope you enjoy that giant plantain. That was the very first one.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

sunfish

Are you gong to have to clear all the plants ?

Nicolas Naranja

Well, not me but yes they will be cleared with a bulldozer and a roller chopper

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

sunfish

Should be nice and fertile for the sugar cane.

Nicolas Naranja

Yeah, I'll be curious how the whole fertilizer in rows thing will show up later. There might be dark green bands going across the field where the bananas were.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

bananimal

Nick -------------- Made tostones with the Dwarf PR plantains tonight. They were outstanding! They were so fresh that the skins peeled off easily all in one piece. It will be a different type each night for the next 3 days.

Then comes chips and various mofongos.

Also green plantains go great as a boiled vegetable along with corned beef and cabbage and potatoes. But they have to be boiled separately because of the mancha.

Dan

Jack Daw

A trip to remember. THUMBS UP!

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Thnx to Marcel, Ante, Dr. Chiranjit Parmar and Francesco for the plants I've received.



Zeitgeist - Corporatocracy 101 (~2hrs)

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Nicolas Naranja

The top is one of the fruits of the giant plantain/maricongo. I put a chiquita in for size reference Bananimal has the rest of the bunch but I always eat at least one fruit of the first bunch of a variety that I harvest so I got one fruit off of this one. I'm quite pleased. The fruit is 10" long and 47mm wide and looked export quality

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

bananimal

Nick --- I didn't take any giant/maricongo. I got the Dwarf, Burro and the Super plantains. And a few HM fingers.

Tonight we did tostones with the Burro. They were great. Noticed the flesh was less dense than the supermarket or the Dwarf varieties so I cut them thicker before the first fry. They squash easily and the taste was really excellent.

Noticed that I had to use more heat for the second fry than for supermarket variety. Probably cause fresh picked have more moisture that is lost in transportation, holding and distribution to market. The 4 Hua Moa fingers that I picked are for tomorrow.

Dan

Nicolas Naranja

So much went on that day I must have lost track as to where things came from. That finger must have come from the dwarf plantain.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

bananimal

Last nite it was Popo'ulu Hua Moa ---- chicken egg tostones.

Nick's fruit had a better taste than mine. They held together well for the squash after first fry too.

Sorry there is no pic of the final product. The HM's started screaming "Eeeeeeat me" ---- and that's exactly what happened. Yum!

First fry



Second fry

bananimal

Went down to Nick's farm again Sat and took a Gardenwebber friend.

Got a pup of Maricongo plantain since I know what they taste like now.

Brought back a box of different fruit. Especially Kandarian that I haven't tried before.

L to R -- Kandarian, Misi Luki, Maricongo plantain and Hua Moa



Last 2 weeks it was fried plantains 4 times with dinner. Wife says that's enough! And she grew up with this stuff. The taste of fresh picked is so good I'm not done yet. So I guess it's just me and the dog. The dog especially likes the mojito dip.

Rmplmnz

Excellent, Hua Moa's,,yum.

Nicolas Naranja

I made some plantain soup this evening, and I couldn't believe how easy it was to peel the plantains. It was actually my first time peeling one within 24 hours of harvest. I only had to make one slit in the plantain and the whole thing peeled which for me is unusual.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

momoese

How was the soup?

bananimal

Nick --- give us the recipe.

Nicolas Naranja

You can probably cheat and season it with recaito and sazon completa


From Ingrid Hoffman


Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
1 celery rib, strings removed and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 1/2 cups chicken broth, homemade or canned low-sodium broth, plus more if needed
2 green plantains, peeled and thinly sliced
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves, finely chopped, reserve some for garnish
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt and fresh ground black pepper

Directions
Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat for 1 minute. Add the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic and cook until the onions are soft and browned, 8 minutes, stirring often with a wooden spoon. Add the chicken stock, plantains, cilantro, bay leaves and cumin, and bring to a boil, reduce the heat to the lowest setting and cook at a bare simmer, uncovered, until the plantains are very tender, 45 minutes.
Transfer half of the soup to a blender and puree until smooth. *When blending hot liquids, fill the blender less than halfway full, place the lid askew and pulse the liquid at first to release some heat, otherwise, your blender top could pop! Stir the pureed soup back into the pot with the remaining chunky soup and mix well. If the soup is too thick for your taste add more chicken stock. Season with salt and pepper and serve.
*When blending hot liquids: Remove liquid from the heat and allow to cool for at least 5 minutes. Transfer liquid to a blender or food processor and fill it no more than halfway. If using a blender, release one corner of the lid. This prevents the vacuum effect that creates heat explosions. Place a towel over the top of the machine, pulse a few times then process on high speed until smooth.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.