We have a row of very mature banana trees behind our house. It has been very eye-opening the last few months to watch bananas do their thing. It's quite different than what I imagined standing in the grocery store picking through the small bunches of greenish bananas on display while growing up in the States.
The bananas start with this huge red flower thing. As the stem grows downward, the bananas "bloom" above it where the petals have peeled off. These are baby bananas.
Eventually, the stem is very long, several feet, lots of the red petals have fallen off, and the bananas have matured. Someone comes along and chops off the whole bunch. Many people in Kenya grow bananas in their shamba (garden) which they harvest and sell. It's not unusual to see a bus's roof rack stacked with banana bunches. Our bananas are grown to serve with meals in the dining hall. Every lunch and dinner, the kids get a piece of fresh fruit with their meal. The sad thing is, raw bananas make me sick, and these are the sweetest, most delicious bananas ever!
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