Island-Grown Delicacies




Every summer we get several beautiful clumps of small bananas from these trees. We have learned that even if they are harvested early, they ripen beautifully. The flavor is so much better than that of the larger bananas in the stores. They are sweet, with hints of the tastes of other fruits, such as strawberries. Each stalk can be cut into smaller “hands,” which are similar to the way bananas are sold in the store. But a hand of smaller bananas usually has around 8 to 10 bananas on it.

Once a banana tree has produced fruit, it becomes unproductive and often falls over. But, meanwhile, small suckers have started to grow around the base and new trees develop quickly.

The other delicacy we acquired with our property was the coconut. Anna Maria Island is right at the boundary of where coconut palms will grow. They are much less common on the mainland, but the milder winter temperatures of the island climate allow these palms to thrive here.

Although the trees thrive with almost no attention, that’s only the beginning of what it takes to enjoy homegrown coconuts. It’s too bad they are so hard to crack open. Methods involving machetes or metal spikes always seem slightly dangerous. One method that sometimes works well in opening the outer husk involves holding the coconut firmly and smashing it repeatedly on a rock, alternating the position so the stem end and opposite end are hit until there is a split. This takes a long time, and is hard on the arms, but the fracture that occurs in the husk makes it relatively easy to peel away. The inner coconut can be baked for awhile to crack open easily. Chunks of fresh coconut are so much tastier than shredded coconut from the store.

We have come to recognize the sound of a coconut falling from a tree and striking the ground. We stack many of those that fall in a garden bed near the bananas. From time to time we notice one of the stacked coconuts has sprouted, and we have successfully planted four of these as new trees in our own little corner of this island paradise.

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  1. Pingback: A Favorite Island Fruit

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