Quote:
Originally Posted by luisport
Hi! I hasked to my friend and he tell me this: "In the botanical garden there are some banana trees, but very few and all of ornamental varieties.
Museum, as I already told you, unfortunately, there is nothing. There is the Bananicultura center in Lugar de Baixo, but I do not know if it receives visitors, but it's a matter of passing by and asking. In the zone there are many banana trees and some access roads to the houses cross the banana trees, so it is easy to visit. Another area with some paths that cross the banana plantations is Madalena do Mar. Both locations are in the Ponta do Sol county. Still in Ponta do Sol there is a dependence of the Gesba (cooperative of banana producers), which I believe to be able to visit and Where you can see the process of disassembling the bunches, washing, selection by categories and packing for export."
I hope this help. I wish you a great holliday in Madeira Island!
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This is a very old thread that I found just because I was looking to see if there have discussions about bananas on Madeira.
As Luis now knows, my wife and I purchased a place on Madeira in 2023 and we have visited Madeira nine times in the past three years.
In November 2022 we visited the BAM center in Lugar do Baixo which has a nice banana museum which was probably built in the past five years or so. I've been to it about six or seven times now because I discovered a third cousin of mine works at the cafe there where you get a coffee, a nice banana cake, banana beer, bananas, banana clothing, etc. The museum offers a guided tour and I've been through that a few times to take family or friends through it (one time they didn't charge me because I had paid enough already on prior visits). They have a large greenhoue with maybe about five varieties of banana plants there but I'm not yet familiar with the synonyms we more commonly used. At the place we bought I showed photos of the bananas grown there and Gabe said they were Namwah. Some people use less formal names for bananas and it gets confusing. Regional, Silver, Preta, etc.
Starting pretty soon I plan to plant most of the varieties offered at BAM and some others that I hope to get my hands on.
I once did a group farm tour and the lady took us through a small banana plantation (most farms are very small) as well as a banana packing facility (links to videos below). Growers in Madeira take great pride in the care they provide their banana plants, picking off flowers at just the right time, trimming leaves, etc. It is a very labor intensive process but at BAM they show an overhead cable system to transport bananas whereas the farms I've seen growers carry heavy racks of bananas up or down stairs leading from steep terraces. It's very hard work and these growers are in great physical shape.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/KdK4VSjm9XSAnHZk8
https://photos.app.goo.gl/yNtK6nT9y6ByCxqi9
https://photos.app.goo.gl/SecsUFFkmTqprcYd9