Going Bananas Over Rainy Season (Pt II)
It’s been quite a quest to beat the blues of “Rainy Season,” but those blues appear to be on the run. They’re being chased by a purplish pod – a banana blossom – and little green hands of banana fingers that, when ripened and yellow, should provide delicious entertainment to our taste buds.
Going bananas? Seeing colors? Too much time without direct sunshine and Vitamin D? Just what is going one here?
Have patience, dear reader, as we unwrap the pedals of this blossoming tale.
Continuing my wordy love affair with a fairer fruit, we resume the log as something afoul approaches:
October 1, 2009
10/01/2009 - I thought I would get some photos from a different angle. This shot provides a better view of the hands that have been uncovered and the beginning of their rise toward the sky. No pedals dropped away today, but a few more seem to be getting ready for the leap. This blossom is starting to look like the typical bunch of bananas.
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October 2, 2009
10/02/2009 – Hands and fingers are really popping out all over. As we are expecting a visit from Typhoon Pepeng (Parma), and don’t know when the first band of rain showers and winds will appear, I took this picture a little earlier in the afternoon. Wow! Look at all those fingers – and to think there are more under each of those pedals. I’ll have to ask Emy to dig up some banana recipes. We certainly will have enough ingredients! Also might be able to sell some at the tienda (palengke) [market].
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October 3, 2009
10/3/2009 – We had heavy, periodic rain overnight accompanied by some stong wind gusts. Today is mostly overcast and periodic downpours and gusts. During a break between rains, the sun came out and so did the digital camera. Last night’s weather helped clear a few pedals from the blossom and reveal the hands hiding beneath them. There are quite a few hands attached to the stem, and still a lot of pedals left to shed. The plant next to this one is showing signs of a possible blossom, too. Oh, the bananas!
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October 4, 2009
10/04/09 – Typhoon Pepeng visited us last night, and demanded bananas. We bartered all night long – he was quite windy – and we came to an arrangement. Pepeng would take the banana plant that was just starting to show signs of a blossom. I could keep the banana plant that I had been documenting, but . . . . So others would know that he drives a hard bargain, Pepeng tipped my banana plant about 45°. The fruit should continue to develop but it’s as if the plant has a sign that says, “Pepeng was here” hanging about its branches. For the rest of the day, Pepeng danced all around the neighborhood, making a bargain here, taking something there, breaking something way over there, etc.
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October 5, 2009
10/05/2009 – The typhoon is lingering about 245km away, and weather conditions let up enough for a close-up of our surviving banana plant. The hands look healthy, but I still wonder if all will be well. There is word that Typhoon Pepeng may return. If so, will Pepeng demand more bananas? After all these days, I’d hate to give them up.
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October 6, 2009
10/06/2009 – Typhoon Pepeng must have liked his bananas. He made a U-turn and came back across Pasuquin and Ilocos Norte. My small banana grove now consists of four small (less than a meter tall) plants and the plant that I’ve been tracking. All I can do is to wait and see whether my survivor is on Pepeng’s menu.
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October 7, 2009
10/07/2009 – The storm left us heading south. Pepeng must have taken someone else’s bananas as my survivor is still hanging in there. Unfortunately, the winds associated with Pepeng’s return removed some of the blossom’s pedals prematurely. You can see the under-developed fingers near the blossom. All with be touch-and-go from this point on. I don’t know if there was any internal damage to the plant. Gee, what a way to chase the rainy season blues away!
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October 8, 2009
10/08/2009 – We had to remove the plant’s blossom from the bunch. It is no longer producing fingers that would develop into edible fruit. While the amputation was a rather sad occasion, something positive resulted as well. When a blossom has produced all of the fingers it has, its remaining part is edible as well. Like an artichoke, peeling away the remaining leaves reveals a “heart.” Though one can eat it raw, the heart is a great ingredient for making a delicious soup.
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October 9, 2009
10/09/2009 – The remaining hands of banana fingers on the bunch are in need of sunshine. Overcast skies remain from the weather systems that passed over us. Whether or not these remaining hands will survive and become fruit will be up to the sun. Having gone a week without sunshine (and mostly harsh winds and rain) can’t be too good for fruiting.
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October 10, 2009
10/10/2009 – Finally, the sun is out. Birds are singing. Farmers are gathering in their rice fields to assess storm damage to their rice crops. Me? I’m looking at what’s left of my bananas. Perhaps another story may come from this plant. Another story may come from its twin that was starting to show those familiar signs of motherhood right next to my plant, until Pepeng knocked her to the ground and took her bananas. Who knows? For now, however, it’s time to end the log.
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All should be convinced by now: I’ve gone bananas over rainy season!
Last 5 posts by PaulK
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Hi Paul;
Condolences on your loss, sometimes fate will deal the bad hand to good people and their pet Banana’s. We all feel your pain. But take heart, as the Banana is a hearty little rascal, and it will bounce back and bloom again. Akin to a Phoenix rising from the ashes, If not the plant you first loved, than its sister or cousin. The Banana will pervail. Thanks for a great story Paul!
Yes the banana will rise again. I am glad that the last typhoon missed, but one more is coming. No wonder my wife is happy here, only 2 hurricanes in the past 25 years. Well it will be soon Pasko and the dry season as well.
Hi Paul:
Back in your high school days in Ohio, (“In my youth I developed a severe dislike for journals – those were things that the “snooty kids” would make for extra credit in school” – Paul Keating), wouldn’t you say that your science experiment with the bananas today would put you in the same league as them “snooty kids” who kept journals to earn extra credit? (read: kiss a..) LOL Just teasing you, Paul.
I’m interested in the progress of your bananas just as I interested about learning more about your red-tiled roof house. It’s made of cement right? I’m thinking of building an open air house made of thick logs and wooden floor in the province similar to those found in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Paul,
Being from banana-country, you should have gotten in touch with Bob in Davao and get you hooked up with one of the guys from Stanfilco or Del Monte to teach you how to brace the tree.
You might want to go into banana planting.
Jon
If you ever feel so inclined, I’d love hear how Philippinos achieve a degree of self sufficiency. Do they have their own little gardens for vegetables? If so, what do they grow? What about coconut trees, etc.? I often read about complaints of brownouts yet I rarely see anyone installing solar panels with batery backups. A well designed solar home could exist off the grid whithout being subject to random power fluxations (or the need for smelly and noisy generators).
If you get the urge, please use your keen investigative mind to look into these topics.
Hi Paul – Thanks for your condolences. Yes, it appears that Pepeng fell in with a bad bunch, heart and all. I’m just glad that he left what he did.
Learning moment: Once a banana plant blossoms and provides a bunch, it is usually cut down after harvest as most varieties will only blossom once. As you said, though, a sister or cousin will prevail – another plant will arise from the same “korm” in the ground. Actually, all of my banana plants are growths from a single, long korm. Once I harvest that short bunch of eight, I’ll cut down the plant so that the others growing will receive the moisture & nutrients from the korm/ground – not the worn out old plant.
All I have to do now is wait for other plants to blossom and locate a recipe for “banana beer”!
Hi Jay – I’d much rather be in a typhoon here than a hurricane there. Seems that folks there just can’t get over their disbelief that it could happen to them. Also, they seem to buy up all of the toilet paper for miles around whenever there’s word of a storm in the area!
We’ll just calmly await Typhoon Mirinae treks its way from the Marianas west. So far, projections see it coming ashore in the Bicol region which means we’ll just get some rain and winds. Of course, late season storms are known for their unpredictibility – e.g. Typhoon Lupit(Ramil).
Fingers crossed (am getting arthritic finger joints)!
Hi John – No, my dislike of those “snooty kids” is such that I would rather cut a finger off that do something that would put me in their clique!
The house is made of steel reinforced concrete blocks with a cement once-over made to look and wear like adobe. Of course, it’s a “western” creation – houses as you’re thinking of have been around here and have survived the worst of storms for a much longer period of time. I’ve yet to see a nipa hut blown apart by a typhoon!
While stationed in Okinawa, I used to see an old gentleman who lived in a traditional house with walls of lacquered paper place planks of lumber up against his house in preparation for a typhoon. He’d tie these up against the house with a large diameter rope. I’d never see how the house would withstand a typhoon as I’d usually be locked up in a government building taking “emergency leak stoppage” or some such action. When I’d get out and head for home, I’d see the old gent taking the planks down and placing them back in the pile next to the house. His beautiful house never suffered a single puncture. There’s a lesson to be learned from those who’ve managed to live years through these storms.
Hi Paul;
Learning Moment, just like on Mythbusters “Science Content” I love the learning part. And once more you’ve caused me to have a great day.
I planted an Orange tree six years ago and nothing so far. My house in Florida had Orange and Tangerine trees when I bought it, so I learned nothing but, that they taste good. Not how to grow them. Due to my newly acquired knowledge from “Paul of the North”, there’s nothing but Banana’s in my future. It was the Banana Beer that sold me!
Hi Jon – Thanks for the suggestions.
I had given thought to bracing earlier in the game (pre-typhoon) and had everything ready. The typhoon, however, made the “to brace or not to brace” decision for me. As is, the remaining bunch isn’t heavy enough (and won’t get heavy enough) for bracing the plant. The variety I grow are smaller and sweeter than their “Chiquita” counterparts often found in stateside stores.
On the bright side, the 45-degree angle will make plant removal a bit easier after harvest.
Hi Paul – The bananas you commonly find in US stores, Chiquita brand or others, are the Cavendish variety. They are grown down here…. for pig food!
Hi Paul – I haven’t seen any oranges or tangerines growing up here, though they do appear in the marketplace. I thought our land to be a little too wet and wild (rainy & dry season extremes) for oranges, so we settled on calamansi for the “citrus center” of our “vast, fruited plane.”
I will be getting about three carabou mango trees later this year from the municipality’s agriculturalist and give ‘em a go. Seeing how our house is built over the spot where a 50 year old mango tree provided refuge for dwendes and kapre, I’m sure the mangos will grow.
Hmmm. Mango beer. Mango/Banana beer. And a twist of calamansi. Endless possibilities, Paul!
Seriously: Watch out for and good luck with Typhoon Mirinae (Santi).
Hi Bob – Ouch, too technical info prior to proper caffiene absorption.
I haven’t seen any Cavendish grown up here at all. Most banana planting is for family supplemental income and/or enjoyment and not for commercial wholesale with fruit seldom getting more than 50 km away from the plant that provided it.
I’m sure that a banana entreprenurial spirit exists up here, but is usually sated by a stomach full of sweet fingers.
Hi David S – You provide some interesting questions! I have to fight off the obsessive/compulsive desires to get right out there and find out! Those are questions that need to be researched over time and my tendency to jump right on them wouldn’t do them justice. They are on my list of topics, now.
Everybody grows something or a couple of somethings. Variety in one home is provided by sharing or small sale/trade of their home-grown commodities with others. If I have bananas, I’ll share them with neighbors and relatives who don’t have bananas (a rarity here). They, in turn, will share whatever produce they’ve grown when it’s available. Sort of a sense of community that, for some strange reason, I associate with Benjamin Franklin’s warning at the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence: “We must all hang together, or assuredly we will shall all hang separately.”
As to brownouts – everyone puts up with them and really aren’t affected by them (outside of foreign expats, etc., who’ve grown up with uninterrupted power service). Since most of the townspeople are at their place of employment (farmers in the fields, bureaucrats at the bureau, etc.) when brownouts occur, they seldom feel any “personal” affect. Thing like food, etc., are normally non-perishable and only a day or two’s supply reside in the house(trips to the market are quite the socio-economic event in a housewife’s week).
I’d say that complaints occur when the brownout happens at an inopportune time (e.g., when you’ve just filled your refrigerator with mango & ube ice cream or you’ve just started “chilling down” a few bottles of beer!). Solar panels with battery back-ups would be an expensive, nearly unaffordable item for most up here. The times when one would truly rely on them would be during typhoons – when only poor qualitiy light is available for the panels, and the duration would put batteries to the test. A generator, on the other hand, fills an immediate need immediately.
Hi Paul;
My useless Orange tree is proof of that they don’t grow well. MMMM Mango beer!
Now for the tale of the typhoon that hit us Saturday. Was I prepared? Like an Eagle Scout, all missile hazards stowed. Food and drink inventories up to snuff (3 cases SMB), gas for the generator 200 rolls of TP, Yes all is in the ready.
Oh dark thirty, rain and wind approach my purok; my mighty mango tree starts to shake like a Fan Dancer at the Roxy. Then comes the dawn, TV news is shouting for everyone to run in circles with your hands in the air shouting “It’s the big one!” Then by 13:00 hours the sun came out, fair to partly cloudy, and that was the typhoon. I hit the lottery on this one.
Hi Paul – Don’t know if that one counted as a typhoon. I think it was downgraded to tropical storm at landfall; perhaps a natural phenomenon whenever one detects a sailor standing by to stand by.
Essentials in the typhoon locker up here appear to be the same. Many, many bottles of drinking water and bottles of “flushing” water, rolls upon rolls of TP – smartly standing at parade rest – awaiting the “big one,” cases of MREs for use when the winds prohibit lighting off the gasul ranges for getting a warm meal underway; etc.
The SMB, however, is treated as ammunition for fighting the typhoon. Raising bravo, I have 24 in the ready locker and 48 in ready supply. There are others stowed elsewhere aboard, but never needed to get to them other than for rotation purposes.
(One or two bottles of Ginebra San Miguel are kept down in sick bay for fighting off serious infection – external or internal – as is a “jar” of basi for anesthesia.)
Ya gotta love late season storms – they’ll keep you guessing right up to the last moment!
Hi, Paul K, Paul T, and everyone SERIOUSLY interested in learning the art of planting and successfully maintaining fruit-bearing trees and other trees in your farm or backyard in the Philippines, the Rarefruit Society of the Philippines maintains a yahoo group that is dedicated to agriculture. If you wish to join this group, click on the following link:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/rarefruit-ph/
Yes, they talk about grafting kalamansi trees, Paul K. One of this group’s members is Senator Ramon Magsaysay, Jr. from Zambales.
Hi John – Thanks for the link, I’ll investigate it and gleen some benefits as soon as I can.
My two kalamansi trees are about 1/3 meter high right now, with one having five fruits developing and starting to blossom again, and the other getting over the ravages of a one-two combination punch of typhoon & slug infestation (it’s coming back slowly).
What I’m looking forward to is receiving and planting 3 “carabou” mango trees that our municipal agriculturalist is obtaining from Davao. I’ll be a very small part of a municipal experiment to see if this variety will flourish up here on a commecial scale and whether small-time mom & pop growers (where I fit in) could grow them as well as they grow the “hawaiian” mango and other varieties common here abouts. (Our municipality has a mango processing center that supplies mango-derived items to the USA/Hawaii.)
At any rate, it’s better than growing grass (read: weeds) in the back yard!