Home grown banana hand

Bananas Trees:  Survival Food

Yes, everyone knows bananas are edible, as are their starchy cousins, the plantains. One doesn’t think of banana or plantain trees as weeds or a wild food but they are. More than that, as a survival food I know they can save lives. I’ve met several they’ve saved.

Banana tree and blossom

I have a friend who defected to the United States during the cold war. She did it while on tour as a national judo champion for Vietnam many years ago. She’s a pleasant woman, but not one to mess with for many reasons. She became a Judo champion in Vietnam after escaping Cambodia as an war orphan. The Khmer Rouge killed her entire family including cousins. At age seven she survived by traveling with other kids though the jungle from Cambodia to Vietnam living on whatever they could find for two years. There were just a few of them, none of them with any living relatives. They became their own family, and still are. In the jungle my friend learned that the banana tree provided more than just bananas.

Bananas are natives to Southeast Asia and are weeds. They’re also weeds in Florida. Many bananas have escaped cultivation, or were tossed in a compost heap and survived. I have planted a few cultivars and taken a few wild ones from hollows in abandoned orange groves. I have enough so that every year one or two will produce a stalk of fat, short, sweet citrusy bananas. Enter my friend: She still likes bananas.

As soon as one of my trees (correctly a pseudo-stalked herb) has a flower she lobs it off to take it home for a delicacy. She tells me my tree will have better bananas if she takes the blossom. I let her have them. I figure if she still likes them then she can have them. She earned the hard way the right to enjoy life.

The flower can be eaten raw or cooked. More so, the banana edibles don’t stop there. The core (and root stalk) of the banana’s trunk is also edible. It is used, notably, in the Burmese dish mohinga. Banana stalks are available year round where ever bananas grow. Incidentally, a juice extract of the core is used to treat kidney stones. Also, the sap of the tree makes an excellent glue as is. And I should mention the leaves. Banana leaves are large, flexible and waterproof. They can be used as umbrellas. One can often find holiday food wrapped in them in Oriental markets. Besides wrapping, they can be used to steam, roast, carry and pack food. They can be used as plates. They also contain a lot of oil and can be used like a frying pan to cook eggs.

And now a bit of botany. Bananas in the wild have seeds. Big seeds. There are about 1,000 different bananas and most of them have large, extremely hard seeds, from the size of a pea to the size of your thumb nail. More so, they also have bad tasting fruit. A natural mutation led to seedless bananas, but now the seedless ones are threatened by a fungus epidemic. In fact, in five years there might not be any seedless bananas. However, should you find a banana with seeds they can be ground into a flour. Should seedless bananas not disappear you can also make beer out of bananas… banana beer…No, I haven’t tried it, but I’m tempted.

There are two botanical names for most edible bananas. Commercial bananas are cultivars of the Musa acuminata. Musa (MEW-zuh) is from Arabic and means banana. Or, named for Antonius Musa (63-14-BC) a physician to the first Roman Empperor, Octavius Augustus.  Acuminata (ah-kew-min-AY-tuh) means sharp pointed, I imagine for the pointy fruit. Most of the bananas grown on private plots are cultivars of the Musa balbisiana (bal-bis-ee-AH-nuh) which was named for Giovanni-Batista Balbis, a 19th century Italian botanist. The word “banana” also comes from the Arabic word “banan” which means “finger.” One banana has about the same nutrition as a potato.

Incidentally, there are two known banana allergies. If you are allergic to birch you will probably be allergic to bananas, or vice versa. That seems strange but it is a fact. Also, folks with a latex allergy can be allergic to bananas.

As for my friend… the ones that survived the jungle escape, the ones with no family… They call each other “cousin,” and they keep in touch, visit, help each other, a “family” forged out of hardship, not kinship. Many of them now live in the United States. I’ve met a few… and argue with none.

Sauteed Banana Tree Stem

Banana-tree-stem  One pounds or so center core
Grated coconut – 1/4 of a coconut
Garlic cloves – 6
Chili powder – 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves – 1.5 teaspoons curry
Salt – to taste
Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Coconut oil – 1 tablespoon

1) Peel off the outer layer of fiber from the banana-tree-stem and chop it into fine pieces. 2) Wash, drain and keep aside.
3) Heat half the oil in a pan. 4) Add mustard seeds and when they start to crackle 5) add the chopped banana stem pieces, curry, salt and chilly powder. For more yellow color add 1/4 teaspoon turmeric.  6) Cover with a lid and simmer until soft. This can take an hour or so. 7) Grind together the grated coconut and garlic in a mixer or blender. 8) When the stem pieces are almost cooked, add the coconut-garlic mixture to it and cook again with lid closed, till completely cooked. 9) When done, take off heat and sprinkle the rest of the coconut oil over the dish and mix. 10) Keep aside for a while with lid closed, before serving.

Banana Flower Stir Fry

* Banana flower – 1
* Lentils -1/2 cup
* Onion – 1 small
* Green chillies – 5 ( more /less according to ur taste)
* Garlic – 1
* Cumin powder – 1/4 tsp
* Turmeric powder – a pinch
* Coconut grated – 1/2 cup
* Oil -1 tbs
* Curry leaves
* Salt

METHOD:

* Cook the lentils, set aside.
* Remove the outside leaves (petals) until u get to the inside portion (cream edible portion) . Chop the edible portion finely . The chopped flower is in lumps because of the sticky fibrous material around it. To remove, apply a little coconut oil to your palm ,take a handful of chopped flower and rub to remove the lumps . Re-apply oil and repeat the procedure until you have removed all the lumps. Set it aside
* Dice the garlic
* Heat the oil in a pan and splutter mustard seeds. Add dry red chillies, chopped onion, green chillies, curry leaves and saute till the onions are light brown in color. Add the prepared flower, garlic, cumin powder, salt and turmeric powder . Cook it covered for 5 minutes in medium heat. Do not add any water. Add the cooked lentils and mix well. Cook for another 5 minutes until its completely dry. Note: Chopped banana flower can be soaked in milk to remove the bitterness.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION; Tallest herb on earth, often 12 feet high, leaves nine feet long comprised of upright concentric layers of leaf sheaths. Leaves can be to 12 ft (4 m) long and 3 ft (1 m) wide. The inflorescence is a long pendulous stalk bearing many purple bracts.

TIME OF YEAR: Year round in tropical and semi-tropical areas

ENVIRONMENT: Likes rich  soil,well watered, sun and warmth. Landscape plant, back yard decoration. Often escaped, discarded or abandoned.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Fruit raw, or cooked. Stem core and rootstock cooked, seeds ground in to flour.  Banana leaves, stalks and skins can be burned to ashes to make a substitute for salt.  The leaves can be used for cooking.

{ 12 comments… add one }
  • PABLOKORACH February 5, 2012, 10:51 am

    Good morning
    Having a hard time to find info regarding the diameter of the inner core
    of the banana stems. ¿Could you please help me? plus any research done on the subject of producing one inch thick lumber and small widths,any length over 4 feet
    Thank you

    Reply
    • Green Deane February 5, 2012, 12:15 pm

      Banana stem diameter vary. I know very little about lumber exept tupil tree wood expands and contacts signifcantly.

      Reply
  • Marie May 30, 2012, 2:16 am

    I have enjoyed your videos and newsletter and wanted to thank you for such great information. My hat’s off to your friend who survived the jungles of southeast Asia. I had a friend like that when I lived in California some years ago. Her entire family escaped through the jungles after fleeing Viet Nam. They are the strong ones. They are the lucky ones to have made it to America.

    I have seen banana trees here in southeast Tennessee but they never make it to producing fruit. There was one family here who used to dig up their plant and take it inside each fall. I sure wish I could grow one in my house. They grew in Southern California and I even saw one in fruit once. Such a beautiful plant!
    Thanks Deane. You are an inspiration.
    Marie

    Reply
  • Jan November 10, 2012, 8:01 pm

    Greetings and thank you sooooooo much – could you post or email me a picture of the banana stem and root that can be eaten — I wouldn’t want to eat the wrong part. Many thanks….also if you cut a banana tree about 2 ft. off the ground and then make a hole (bowl) it will fill up with water — empty it four (4) times before you drink — it will keep refilling for 2-3 days — after 3 days do not drink the water — another survival tip 🙂

    Reply
  • Patty December 4, 2012, 10:16 am

    I LOVE your article on bananas, especially your friend’s story on survival and family. I live in northeast FL and have been growing banana trees for 6 years. My trees only grew fruit once (the year I bought the house with the banana plants). I must be doing something wrong. Please tell me what I can do to help them produce fruit. I have some banana plants in the ground & some in a large planter (which I take in the house on colder days). The ones in the ground died 2 summers ago. I was lucky I had one in a planter, which since, has multiplied. Please help my banana trees bare fruit!

    Reply
    • Green Deane December 4, 2012, 3:41 pm

      Bananas take two years to fruit. If you have a cold winter in between they won’t.

      Reply
  • Leah November 16, 2013, 8:37 pm

    I saw a documentary on farming bananas once and they were talking about a taranchula type spider that is very agressive and likes to live in banana trees.

    Reply
    • Green Deane November 16, 2013, 8:43 pm

      There’s actually a toxic banana spider in warmer climates.

      Reply
  • Vicki December 7, 2016, 4:27 am

    Can you send me a cutting of your banana plant to plant in my back yard? I would willingly pay.

    Reply
  • Maria Benedetti September 18, 2018, 3:32 pm

    In Puerto Rico and throughout Central America, it is traditional to use the banana sap as first aid for bleeding, blisters, bug bites, etc. Simply cut a leaf, and the sap that rushes up to heal its cut will also heal whatever needs to be sealed. We call it a liquid band aid! It is also taken internally to staunch hemorrage during childbirth. This sap is very astringent/hemostatic. For this reason, I imagine that the first sap to rush into the “bowl” used as survival water recovery (as mentioned by Jan) must be discarded four times, as the first sap might cause some serious constipation.

    Reply
  • Jim Vail February 19, 2019, 4:47 am

    I also live in the Florida Panhandle. When it begins to be cold weather, cut all the leaves off your banana tree. Dig it out of the ground and shake off all the dirt. Roll the banana tree in news paper and store it all winter in your garage. Do not water it at all!! In the spring, replant it into the ground. Keep it watered. Add a little fertilizer if you wish, but it is not necessary. This second year, it will start growing, taking up where it left off last year when you cut off the leaves. It should produce a stalk of bananas this second year. After it makes bananas, the main tree will die back, but will produce new baby banana trees from the roots.

    Reply
  • Bryton April 20, 2020, 4:14 pm

    You’re the best. I am a landscaper. It’s good to wow a customer with priceless facts

    Reply

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