Life in the Tropics -- Low Hanging Fruit

Yes it is hot here right now.  We live in the tropics.  And as I've noticed from observations of weather up north it doesn't look cool there right now either.  And there are benefits --even in the summer -- of living in the tropics.  Along with the heat comes an abundance of  tropical fruit dangling low and so temptingly from branches everywhere --many unattended limbs because tree owners have departed for "cooler" turf.  To pick or not pick....that is the question.  Not, I think not.  And that's why we have begun to acquire more fruit-bearers of our own.   Hence our banana... which has just born it's first pod.

Only two years old, the sprawling tree has sprouted up over 6 feet. from a very small plant.  

Our banana tree is a Musa - Cavendish dwarf banana and while the fruit is similar to what you can buy at any supermarket -- it tastes much sweeter off the tree.  At least to me it does.  Besides there is nothing like picking fruit from your own garden.

According to Wikopedia bananas were first domesticated in Southeast Asia.  And archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence suggests that banana cultivation there goes back to at least 5000 BCE, and possibly to 8000 BCE.  Despite it's prevalence throughout Asia, Africa and into the Middle East, even up to the Victorian Era, bananas were not widely known in Europe, although they were available. It was  Jules Verne who introduced bananas to the western world  with detailed descriptions in Around the World in Eighty Days in 1872.  In the 1890s, United Fruit Company, now Chiquita Brands (from it's famous Chiquita Banana promotion -- the one with the lady with the hat) began distributing bananas to the United States.

And now in a few weeks, I'll be able to pick my own bananas from our tree, many, many bananas.  Let me know if you would like some low-hanging fruit.