A few weeks ago, I came across a line in an article about
how the banana stem was edible. Intriguing. That triggered some research and,
thanks to the internet, some neat conversations. A lady, born in Sri Lanka,
worked as a volunteer in Tanzania and had done some work in this area. As well,
a myriad of recipes for various banana parts, including "how to"
videos sparked some exploration.
The banana plant is a type of grass. Each stem produces
one stalk of bananas in its lifetime. Once the stalk of bananas is harvested,
the stem is cut down and, usually, left to rot. New stems (shoots - or
daughters/sons) spring up from the roots. At the end of the stalk of bananas is
the flower. As the stalk hangs upside down, the flower is at the bottom ...
usually a rich purple in colour.
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| "Stick flowers" |
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| Yeni, Anna and Edel getting to the 'heart' of the flower |
It turns out that the inner part (heart) of the flower is
edible - along with numerous "stick flowers" that are inside each
bract (petal if you will). One flower produces 500 - 1,000 grams of food. All
of this food is high in potassium (good for developing brains) and other
vitamins.
Each stem has an inner core which is edible. As stems can
be anywhere from 2 - 6 meters long and the inner core is up to 5 cm in
diameter, there is an amazing amount of food there. In addition, the outer stem
protects the core for weeks, even after the stem is cut down and lying on the
ground. We have opened up some stems which have been lying on the ground in
daily rains and heat for weeks and found the core fresh, firm and appearing to
be edible (haven't tried those stems - want to try truly fresh ones first). The
point is that, as an emergency food source, this has great potential.
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| Anna cutting up the heart - I'm cutting the stick flowers |
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| Finished stew |
A third part of the banana that is edible are the peelings
themselves. They can be cut up and cooked. Evidently, you can even put the whole
banana into the blender when making a smoothy. Not sure that I would want to
use Canadian store bought peels in a smoothy because of chemical residues.
However, here it should work ... unless you are buying the Grade B bananas from
the export companies.
We tried the flowers twice last week. On Friday, we
cooked up four flowers with onions, potatoes, sausage, tomatoes and spices. It
turned out to be about 6 litres of stew when all was done. All the staff and
three visitors had a try. There was still a lot left and I was worried about
what to do with it. I went out on an errand and came back less than an hour
later to find all of it gone. Students and staff had dived in and finished it
off. Great sign.
On Saturday, I showed Valero a banana flower and stem. It
was quite exciting to fill his hands with the food from a small flower ...
something that, until then, he had thought of as useless. He has a few children
and no steady job. Rather miraculous to create a meal for a family from
"nothing".
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| Flowers |
Valero has been doing some work for me on a project and
has used the money he earned to buy a small pig. Saturday he said that he is
buying a second pig this week. That is truly amazing. His horizon lines have
expanded enormously. From thinking only of food for tomorrow ... or, at most, a
maize crop away, he has now changed to looking 4 - 5 months ahead and using
precious resources to risk a reward. As well, he has walked an hour uphill to
his house with bags of plants and cuttings to plant around his house. He even
sold some bags of Moringa seeds to neighbours. Valero is illiterate and these steps are
changing his self confidence and ability to use his skills and knowledge to
good effect.
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| Pith |
A group working four hours away has a project teaching
women how to be self sustaining in business and agriculture. A volunteer from
that group spent two days with me to learn what she could about plants and so
forth. We started designing their garden space on paper. We will see what
happens when they lay it out in reality.
Graduation is coming and people are becoming excited.
Decorations are being made. A sign of how valued the occasion is to the
students is the fact that they pay for the decorations themselves. That is
rewarding.
TTYL
BB
