Oh man! A new banana from Oman!

Another find from the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog...

Mystery Cultivar from Oman (ProMusa)

I was kind of surprised that there are abandoned oases full of bananas in Oman. I would think there'd be a shortage of arable land in that part of the world. But what do I know?

Smoothie Quest

As much as I like to occasionally gripe about the selection of fruit in grocery stores, I have to say the number of interesting fruits in them has certainly improved in the last decade. My three year-old and I decided at dinner we were going to make smoothies tonight. We already had blueberries at home, and I had half a flat of strawberries from work in the car (I was planning an informal tasting of the five leading selections, which was cut short when one of my daughters wolfed down one clamshell's worth in a matter of seconds). So we headed to the store and went fruit shopping.

She made her old dad proud, choosing a really eclectic mix of fruits, each of which I sampled before dropping them into the mix:

Cherimoya:


Wow...I'd forgotten how much I liked cherimoya. The aroma is wonderful. And it worked really well in a smoothie. The only downside was digging out all those seeds (which are hopefully working on germinating right now...)

Honeydew Nectarine:


I had never heard of this before...and I really wasn't missing much. It tasted like a blend of really bland nectarine and underripe melon. It might not have been fully ripe, but the texture suggests it was close. Still, a pale yellow nectarine is interesting. (My picture is kind of washed out...oh well.

Golden Kiwi:


I've been seeing these for a while, but this is actually the first time I've bought one. Interesting that the shape and skin are so distinctive--if I had to guess, this is Actinidia chinensis, not the usual Actinidia deliciosa. It was pretty good, but nothing spectacular. It was a tad past its peak, I think, but it went into the mix just fine.

Manzano Bananas:


I really like these things. I probably should have waited for them to darken more (it does improve the flavor), but they're really good even at this stage. I ate one while I worked and gave the other to my daughter, so none made it in the smoothie (we bought some standard bananas too, which served just fine).

We also got blackberries (which my daughter had nearly reduced to smoothies already by the time we got them back to the car--she was enjoying shaking the bag vigorously), a nectarine, more standard versions of kiwi and banana, and an apple.

The smoothies were good and we got to discuss lots of different fruit species. How many three year olds do you know who can tell you all about cherimoyas?

(I didn't really have a point to this post, other than just basking in all the fruit I just bought).

A whole bunch (er, hand?) of banana articles

The New Agriculturist has a series of articles on African bananas:

African banana--on an upward curve (New Agriculturist)

Brought to my attention, as is so often the case, by the Agrobiodiversity Blog (they even threw in a bonus story on carotenoids in bananas...)

Rumors of the bananas' death have been greatly exaggerated?

Found this today thanks to the wonder of Google News:

Banana Shortage? Nothing to Worry About (Medicine Hat News)

This of course misunderstands (or maybe just ignores) the biggest threat posed by banana diseases. Pesticides and cultural practices can probably preserve banana production for those of us in developed countries, where a few cents difference in price doesn't even register. But bananas are also a staple crop for millions of people, many of whom are already in a very precarious position. Even a slight decrease in yield could mean going hungry, or it could also mean the elimination of the what little surplus they had to barter or sell to buy other supplies, pay for schooling or medicine, etc.

(Sorry I haven't been around--just been distracted.)

The International Banana Society

A whole bunch of banana posts here lately, so I might as well break out another long forgotten find from the bookmarks:

The International Banana Society

The site is basically just forums, but those forums are big, active, and packed with information and photos. I'm not in a place to really grow bananas (I did have an Abyssinian one in Florida before I moved to California, though) so I can't make use of a lot of it, but it seems like a big bunch of passionate, well-informed people.

I'm enjoying reading about mutant banana sports.

Update: Check it out—it's Big Mike!

While we're on the subject of bananas...

Check this out...

Hawai'ian Plantain (No Fear Entertaining)

In related news, I accidentally made some awesome banana bread recently. (I say "accidentally" because I kept screwing things up--and when I made another loaf a little later and actually was careful, the second loaf was nowhere near as good as the first).

Dan Koeppel's Banana Blog

One of the many things I've bookmarked with the intention of posting here and then neglected for months is Dan Koeppel's blog about bananas:

BananaBook.org

Dan's the author of a recent book, Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World, which chronicles the many disease and diversity issues facing the banana that we've touched on from time to time here before. (I was excited when the book was announced and had actually hoped to review the book here, but after I bought my Kindle I went on a little Amazon spending binge and now I'm laying off the book buying for a little bit).
The blog deals with many of the same issues as the book, and I would guess it was set up to promote it, but even if you haven't read the book (like me, except for the beginning, thanks to the wonder of the sample chapter) it's still entertaining as a general purpose banana blog.

The site also features a rather inexplicable banana themed picture.

Dan also scores points for dropping me a nice note when I added him as a friend on FaceBook, and I'm a sucker for authors who actually write back. (Granted I only wrote him a sentence or two, and he wrote about the same back).

Update: I'm feeling so positive about this website that I've decided to stick it in the sidebar...

Bananapocalypse Now (or at least soon)

I've actually already posted about this, but 'Bananapocalypse' is such a cool made-up word I'll reward it with a link:

Bananapocalypse: a favorite fruit slips towards extinction (Plenty Magazine)

This got me thinking...has anybody out there actually tried a 'Gros Michel' banana (the variety our current 'Cavendish' replaced)? I'd love to know how different it really is.

Bananas on the Brink

This is an older article, and I feel like I linked to it before, but if so I can't seem to find it. I meant to write a bigger piece on this issue, but I just stumbled across it again, and might as well link to it, since it tells the story at least as well as I could.


Can This Fruit Be Saved? (Popular Science)


(Also, some recent news on progress against Black Sigatoka disease. Isn't "Black Sigatoka" an evil-sounding name? It sounds like a villain from a fantasy novel or something.)