Bananas Thrive on Waste Water
From the Anguilla Local News - Site Map.

Despite the semi-arid climate, many homes in Anguilla have a banana patch. Bananas are an important part of the economy on many Caribbean islands, but not in Anguilla. Here they are grown by families for personal consumption, making use of the grey water from washing and sinks. You have to be careful harvesting bananas, since the juice from the stems can stain your clothes very badly. We learned this after Hurricane Bertha, when a house guest Bruce Toback and I waded out in a knee-deep puddle to harvest the banana crop before the plants died (don't worry, the main shoot normally dies after bearing fruit, but another one is always ready to start).

Now there is a banana stamp from Anguilla too. Here is a web site that has the other fruit stamps from Anguilla with descriptions of the fruits.

The Banana is one of the regions' more popular fruits. Several Caribbean islands have built their economies around banana production, but have difficulty attaining the cost efficiencies of other locations. Unfortunately for them, the World Trade Organisation has recently upheld its finding that the European Union discriminated in favour of former colonies in banana imports. This is bad news for the Caribbean, since they will now have to compete and may lose market share.

The tasty fruit is generally eaten unprocessed but is widely used in a variety of recipes including the famous Banana Nut Bread.

To learn more about Bananas, visit the Banana Home Page on the web.

Although consumers in the North seldom see more than one variety of banana (the one that transports and handles best for international trade), the islands of the Caribbean sport numerous varieties of banana: smaller, purple, etc. These varieties often have a different, perhaps better, taste from those sold internationally. And of course there are also plantains, which look like large bananas and are related to bananas, but must actually be cooked before eating. Many tourists have been caught on that one and can tell you what a raw plantain tastes like.

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