This it the first ripe hand from the banana spear we harvested on 1 April (with its primer fruit). It was ready to eat yesterday. The bananas are unbelievably delicious. I’m not sure why that surprised me but the truth is I had expected them to be maybe woody and a little bit flavourless. In reality they are sweet and soft and the yummiest bananas I’ve ever tasted. How’s that for fantastic!
The progress is: The bananas with the apple were first across the line after 6 days of ripening. The hand with the single banana is starting to turn yellow and will be ready in maybe 3 days. The bunch where I removed the priming apple and banana after 48 hours is just getting a tinge of lighter colouring. The unprimed hand and the bananas in the fridge are as green as the day they were harvested.
It looks like we’ve managed to avoid having the whole spear ripen on the same day. We’ll have bananas for days/weeks to come. Not just any bananas – tasty and free ones. Because of the horrible storms that destroyed much of the banana crop in Australia this year, bananas are $10.99 a kilo in the shops. Free is much better!
Laura Rittenhouse's Gardening Journal 