Bananas and Dreams of Cantaloupes

Back in the United States, during a limited time frame, I was able to go outside beside the house and pick from plums off one of the two plum trees I had planted there. One of the trees produced fruit in June; both trees blossomed every spring, but one had not produced any plums before we sold the house.

The trees are different varieties and are barely years old, so I suppose it's possible that the tree that hadn't produced fruit will one day.




Here in Sibulan, I can still go out into the back yard and fetch fresh fruit; only, here, instead of picking plums, we can pick bananas.

The particular bunch pictured here was harvested a few days ago. I wasn't the one who picked them - I'm not exactly sure which family member did. That doesn't stop me, however, from eating what I can.

This bunch is out back, on a table in an area referred to as the "dirty kitchen". The dirty kitchen is what the Filipinos call an area behind the house where foods can be cooked with firewood or charcoal. A sort of BBQ area, if you will.

These particular bananas aren't vey large; they're only slightly longer than my longest finger. They're still very sweet and I'm quite fond of them. My sister in-law pan fries them for breakfast (then sprinkled with sugar) I like the bananas cooked that way, but eating the fruit raw is good enough for me.

I have one or two relatives back home who will not be jealous of me because of this. There are actually folks out there who don't like bananas. I know, strange huh, but true.

In an earlier post , I mentioned that I've planted cantaloupe seeds. With luck, I should have cantaloupes in about 90 days or so. I can hear some of my friends from Georgia now, "Big deal. We grow cantaloupes here." Maybe so, but here, there will be cantaloupes pretty much year around. I won't ever have to worry about frost killing the plants. The only problem might be too much rain at certain times of the year. Not having lived here for a year yet, I'm not too sure about that.

I promised "before and after" photos. Still no seedlings to photograph. The cantaloupe seed packet says to expect 5 to 10 days for the seeds to sprout. It's only been two. Next week, when I have cantaloupe seedlings, I'll take my camera outside for the first shots.

Until then,I see little reason to photograph dirt.