this is a pretty large stand. we have 3 bunches of fruit, in varying stages of ripeness. i like to freeze them whole with skins on and then eat them like ice cream. the grass ends where DH is standing, at the water's edge.
bananas growing in the lake
next
last one
That is so cool. I can't even imagine what a fresh "nanner' taste like!
Sigh*
after about 500 hundred of them, they taste yucky LOL! but oh, those first ones after waiting all year! yummy!
At the risk (very high risk here) of sounding ignorant.... Do you eat them frozen WITH the skins??? You eat the skins, too?
ana
no ana, lol, i just freeze them that way. whenever i want one i just set it on the counter for a few minutes or roll it in my hand, and the peel comes right off. when you freeze them the skin turns black, but it stays nice inside. i don't eat bread, so i don't know what else to do with them! debi
Awesome! looks like Costa Rica :-)
Great stand of bananas there!!
Have you tried frying them in butter and cinnamon?
Maybe a drizzle of honey to top them off.
We also cut them in pieces, put them in plastic bags and freeze.
Then use them as ice cubes in chocolate milk or banana daiquiri's!
Ric
i think they look like costa rica too, or at least not usa! apparently that frost we had a couple times last winter didn't do any harm.
henry, i love 'em fried, but i've never tried the ice cube trick. sounds great and will be trying that one for sure. thanks, debi
Oh what a great idea! I can plant them in the edge of the resaca and won't have to worry about watering them! Yours looks so tropical!
calalily, i can't take credit for this idea or the plants. we bought this place last year and the bananas were already here. the ones i grew in the keys never got this big and i had to water alot!!!
the lake is up quite a bit from the '04 hurricane season and so much rain this summer has kept it up. we have never seen the property at normal level. the bananas have been "swimming" for over a year now and they look great. the only thing i don't know is whether any pups are making it. i can't get that close. we got gators!
This message was edited Oct 14, 2005 7:49 AM
Cool that you have your own bananas! Do you like banana bread or loaf? If you had a dehydrator you could make your own banana chips. I like making them sometimes.
:) Donna
i don't make banana bread because i don't like any "fruit" breads. i do like the chips but i'm too lazy to make them! oddly enough, i'm probably one of the few people who actually loves fruitcake, the true old christmas kind.
Fruitcake.....I luv fruitcake! My Mom always used to make it for me. Even when my FIL was alive he would make sure he bought me some...lol. I even have hubby trained to buy me some to.
:) Donna
i drench mine in bourbon, then seal it up for awhile. maybe that's why i like it so much!!!
Yummmmmmmmmmmm. I can definitely see why.....lol.
:) Donna
Trackin, we have gators too. There was a baby one in the water the other day, I think he was trying to figure out if I was too big to have for dinner! He was about 2 ft long, not big at all, but he sure was brave!
those gators, big or little, don't thrill me. as little as i am, if they grab you and drag you in, you know they start that twistin stuff, i'd be a gonner!
not LOL at that idea! but i will risk life and limb to harvest those bananas! debi
I think a 2' gator is actually called a lizard! lol
I had a 4 footer as a pet as a kid.
Now a 2'+10' one I'd start to worry about.
Though it would make a seriously great set of matching luggage and shoes.
Wild pigs are a much bigger threat.
Unless of course you're a poodle ;-)
Ric
lol henry, i have a 7'er that hangs out just to the left of the bananas, close to our boat dock. since the water is up he has actually been sleeping on the dock. yikes. the guy in the next cove over swims the cattail line every morning. double yikes.
I was somewhat teasing about them.
We had an 8 footer that used to mess w/ us when we fished down there.
He would just bump the boat every morning and swim off.
Our guide told us to whack him w/ a paddle if he bumped more than twice.
That happened one time only.
We heard later that he'd been relocated. (by the guide as I guess some of the fisherman weren't amused)
They really are beautiful to watch though.
How far from the banana grove is the water when in normal condition?
Ric
ric, we aren't exactly sure. we don't know how the land lays right there. the dock is down aways and seems alittle farther out and the water on that is still up to the benchseat. taking all that into account, i would think under normal conditons maybe 10'. i could be way off tho. the banana stand goes back into the water quite aways.
the locals tell us they have never seen it this high before. it's not very big, just 32 acres and the other side is water right up to the lawns. our side is nothing but cattails. i'm all for keeping wild areas, but we bought this really neat thing that runs on a marine battery and you hang it over the front of the boat down into the water. i think it's like a sickle bar with teeth that go sideways to eat the cattails off below the water line. it doesn't kill them, just mows them.
right now we can't even use it because we can't get out to the dock.
anyway, i guess it will go down eventually and hopefully the bananas won't all drown in the meantime. debi
Debi, the cattail whacker sounds like something we need! The homeowners here pay a guy to go out in a boat with a machete to cut the cattails, but they come back. One man sprayed his with round-up, the wildlife guy said it was safe, but we haven't sprayed yet.
They relocated a 16 ft gator from our resaca, it killed a dog and a horse. Last year there was an 8 footer and a 10 footer, but when they drained the resaca to fix the bridge(resacas are controlled by large lift gates, like small dams) the big gators left(or the wildlife people took them, not sure though). We saw a big mamma gator walking up the dry riverbed looking for a place to make a nest, but she didn't come up on our bank, thank goodness! When the gators get to be a problem and start coming up on the bank, the wildlife people come remove them. This is farm country with goats and horses and they don't want the gators getting the animals.
calalily, i would be really afraid of putting round-up in water. it would kill the fish, at least that's what it says on the containers. this product we bought is in
San Marcos Texas. people here pay big money to remove the water weeds too. we figured we would make the investment in this thing and not pay someone else, year after year. here is the website. www.lakemower.com we searched and researched a long time before we bought ours. one person can run it from a small boat. debi
At work we are able to lower the pond levels.
We dropped it 12" and the cut out the cattails.
On a calm day we sprayed w/ a fish friendly herbicide.
Then after a few days raised the level.
Two months later there they were again.
We finally got 'Grass Carp'.
They are a sterile hybride Carp that went to town on the Cattails.
Sucked them down like spagetti.
Within two months the cattails were gone.
Ric
Debi, San Marcos is not too far from here, about 5 or 6 hours I guess. I go to San Antonio several times a year and it's just above SA.
Ric, wonder if they sell grass carp in TX? Those sound like what we need, the cattails are a problem here. The resaca has alligator gar and talapia in it and sometimes mullet depending on how much salt is in the water.
When they drained the resaca to fix the bridge, we meant to get a guy to come dig the cattails out, but by the time he could get his equipment here, they'd opened the gate to refill it.
OMG, grass carp? if john finds out we could have turned fish loose in here instead of buying the lakemower he will kill me! i have to research these fish pronto! probably illegal in florida but i'm checking it out anyway. thanks, i did some research on google and you do need a permit here. the fish and game will release after you jump thru hoops. i don't think our lake would qualify. it seems there could be a problem with eating too much vegatation and possibly harm other fish thru decimation of breeding grounds, etc. it also said that they don't eat adult cattails enough to make a dent. it takes at least 4 yrs. to control other aquatic life. guess we will stick with our lakemower! thanks for the info. debi
This message was edited Oct 16, 2005 8:08 AM
Tracks,
Where is Umatilla? I'm in St. Pete.
Jan...
we are 1 hr. northwest of orlando and 1 hr. southeast of ocala. right above mt.dora and eustis. debi
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