Yes! We have some bananas!

Dear Folks,

Well after many lost opportunities - we missed some ripening times when we were out of town, or the fruit simply was not mature enough when frosts hit, we have our special banana fruit!

On Wednesday the 3rd we noticed some of the fruit beginning to yellow and cut the whole stalk on Thursday - (we thought - although yesterday Deane noticed there is still a large 'hand' of fruit on the plant which we will leave there until it begins to yellow).

We have been enjoying the ripening fruit ever since.


This is a "Blue Java" or "Ice Cream" banana (Musa acuminata ss. Java Blue( Moo-suh)(ah-kew-min-AH-tuh) is reported to be the best tasting banana and to have a vanilla ice cream taste.

I purchased the original plant about 8 or 9 years ago at a Home Depot in town, and transported the potted plant around until about 2 years ago and then waited, and waited - the first bunch a year ago came out so late we cut the stalk at first frost to keep it going and it did ripen in our back room but the fruit while banana like in flavor was not inspiring.

Over the next year or so we had the hit or miss with subsequent bunches until this one.  It took right at 4 months to go from first flower sighting to this pre-ripe stage.

So was it worth the wait - yep!

First let me tell you these are not large bananas - they average about 3 inches long.  4 of us did the first taste tests - we all agree the flavor is more pronounced than the store bought kind, sweeter, creamy, and with 'something' additional in the flavor.  1 of us said "vanilla"

So it was worth it.

Okay on what some of the challenges were that I can discuss now.  That first year's bunch was off the first plant which grew to about 10 feet tall.  Subsequent plants were taller.  When they would get really going in the warm weather they would put out a new leaf about every 8-10 days.  It appeared the subsequent fruit bunches even when not robust were larger and more 'hands' developed.

Over the last two years I identified some important aspects of growing them here in the valley:

1) the large root mass grows substantially once you put it in the ground from a potted plant.  Subsequent plants are more robust and put out fruit earlier - most likely because of the enlarging root mass.

2) your success with the fruit is going depend a lot on when the flower comes out after the plant has been in the ground about a year, meaning after the initial plant is in the ground a year, the subsequent 'baby' plants will be more robust, grow faster and reach flowering stage a little sooner.  If the fruit in optimal growing time takes 4 months to go from first flower sighting to ready to harvest the stalk then your prime crop will be available before first frost.

-- we have our last large bunch on another plant (each plant produces one bunch then dies back and you need to cut it out) is just now getting go good size and unfortunately needs another 2 months to get to prime harvest state.  We will watch and cut it at first frost.

-- in a very cold winter your banana plants may go to the ground if we get sustained killing frosts (not common) but they will come back up as soon as the soil warms in the spring, even sooner if the subsequent winter is mild.

3) bananas are a large piece of grass - kind of - creating photosynthesis from all green parts.  One of the complaints of 'orderly gardeners' is that the wind can shred the large leaves and it does, but do not cut any of the leaves off unless they have gone completely brown. If you need to contain it some you can cut the bent-over tips some to keep them from trailing on the ground.

4) they will require a bit more water than some other fruiting kinds, but not excessively.  During the hottest part of the summer we watered for about 10 minutes between the same kind of watering we gave our tomatoes, other fruit trees and herbs.

Recommendations from other banana growers are to try and keep no more than a few plants in the same area (root mass) at a time, to encourage good growth and fruiting.  I don't know that my cutting out some of the baby plants for re-sale did any of that but the remaining plants were very large in girth.  I did need to keep the babies cut out anyway so I could control how wide the spread of the mass was by selectively choosing which baby plants came out.  Worked for us.

Other useable qualities of the banana plant are the leaves and flowers are edible.  While you don't want to chow down on the leaf they make great steaming envelopes for food, imparting a fruity quality to the cooked food.  The banana flowers are also edible but I have not wanted to sacrifice future fruit by trying some of the recipes. Now that I know how good the fruit is when it ripens at the right time, if a flower comes out too late for successful fruit production I will give the recipes for banana flower a try -- maybe next year. (If you are really energetic the fibers of the stalks have been used in weaving.)

We were almost considering giving up on the major plant area (I had started another small one to have at least for using the leaves), and we are both glad we didn't pull the plants -- the fruit is that good.

Next I will be updating on my ginger project.

Have a great time in the garden!


-- Catherine, The Herb Lady

My books are available as ebooks with a version for ipad as well as in print copies

http://stores.lulu.com/herbs2u

12 Days of Christmas - 11th Day of Christmas

11th Day of Christmas - January 4th


GARDEN

You still have time to plant fruit trees in the garden, and look forward to all that wonderful fruit in a couple of years. We just had our first navel orange of the season — the peaches and apricots will begin ripening in late April to early May.

Fruit trees and chill hours — specifically stone fruit such as Peach and Apricot (citrus require no chill hours) — need a certain number of chill hours to set fruit. The wrong tree in the wrong climate (temperature zone) may give you lovely flowers but it will not set fruit if its chill hour requirement has not been met.

While heavily researching chill hour requirements in our desert gardens a couple of years ago, I discovered, after the fact, the reason why some of our plum trees, and one of our peach trees, never fruited well — we are in a warmer ‘zone' within the valley and the trees we got needed more cold. While we thought we were choosing the proper chill rated trees, we did not in a couple of cases

What's A Chill Hour, is the name of a booklet I wrote about this factor in choosing bare-root or potted trees for your garden. There is a lot more detail in the booklet, but the gist is this: a chill hour is the amount of hours, calculated from November to March, where the temperature falls below 45 degrees. Stone fruit trees like cherry require anywhere from 900-1200 chill hours in a season to properly set fruit. Our valley zones range from as low as 250 (some areas of Mesa etc.) to 700-900 — some areas of central Phoenix around the Encanto area to Queen Creek.

Varieties of fruit trees adapted for the mild desert climate (many were developed in Israel — remember how similar the climate there to here), require far less hours, and we have a very nice selection from which to choose, but you have to know not only the chill hours of the trees you are looking at, but also the chill hours of your neighborhood. The difference can be dramatic even within a mile of you, and therefore a neighborhood nursery may have trees which do well in the geographic range, but not do well in another section of the valley. For example if a peach tree rated at 400-450 hours, sold in an Encanto-area nursery, were to be planted in our gardens in the east valley, they would not fruit because our neck-of-the-valley is much warmer.

One ‘barometer' of cold in a neighborhood is whether bougainvillea bushes frost all the way to the ground each winter — if they do you are in a much colder area of the valley, if not a warmer area.

Herbs: If you love basil as I do, start seed now inside for transplanting later (late February) to give you a jumpstart on this glorious herb. A basil or chili butter-dipper peach half on the grill this summer is a cook's delight While starting the basil seed, start tomato, eggplant and peppers too.

We are only a month and a half approximately from transplanting these frost-tender plants, so save some well-cleaned gallon, water, or 2 liter soda bottles to use as cloches in the garden when you transplant. With the bottoms cut off they make great transition ‘green-houses' and you can use the cap as a humidity regulator. Take the ‘house' off on sunny days, put back on at night. They can be removed completed when all frost danger is past. How do you know when frost danger is over? Look for some signs in nature: consistent ant activity, flowering mesquite, or night-time temperature predictions that are not below -mid to high 40s into the outer lying areas.

KITCHEN

ORANGE FENNEL SALAD
A sunny salad with lots of flavor and good for you (and seasonal) ingredients.
2 oranges, peeled and sectioned (make sure to catch any juice)
6 red radishes, shredded or thinly sliced
1/2 cup fennel leaf "feathers" (loose packed)
2 tablespoons almond oil
1 tablespoon cider or rice wine vinegar
Pinch of salt
Use the ‘feathery' leaves from bulb or leaf fennel -- reserve bulb for other meals. Blend oil, vinegar and salt. Gently toss with orange, radish and fennel. Serve immediately.

MARINATED TOFU
Tangerines are in season now and add a lovely sweetness to this recipe. The challenge for most folks with tofu is its blandness, but that is what is great about it, because it picks of the flavors it is cooked/mixed with. You always need a pinch of salt with tofu

1 cup cubed extra firm tofu
½ teaspoon dried savory (or 1 teaspoon fresh)
Zest of 1 tangerine (or orange)
1 tablespoon tangerine juice
1/4+ teaspoon salt to taste
Olive oil
Place cubed tofu in bowl, gently toss with zest, savory, juice and half the salt. Take a clean 12 oz. jar and pour a little olive oil in bottom. Pile mixed tofu in jar (being sure to scrape bowl juices and spices into jar), and add rest of salt to top. Cover with additional olive oil, cap tightly and turn jar to mix well. Turn several times over one hour and serve or refrigerate — will keep for approximately 4-5 days. Allow to come to room temperature before serving.
Serve over mixed greens, or on crackers or slices of apple.
TOFU TIP: Press extra liquid from extra firm tofu by placing in a bowl, covered with plastic of flat plat weighted down with a 1 lb can, then cube.

THE SPIRIT OF GENEROSITY

I grew up in a firefighter family (3 uncles and a cousin were Captains) and love a wonderful retired firefighter, so I have a very special place in my heart for our guys and gals who pull their boots on every morning ready to face whatever the day brings.

Deane is probably typical of the average firefighter or police office in that he does not think he is a hero or brave, because he has never actually saved someone's life at risk of his own. He bridles at the word hero and bravery.

I have a different take on it: Anyone can be a ‘hero' in the sense that they bring unlimited mental and physical fortitude to a sudden and horrible situation and sometimes make amazing rescues for which they should be given every honor society has to offer.

But I think someone is a hero and brave when they willingly go into a fire, face a crazed criminal and also when they put their boots on in the morning and are ready to do that for real that day whether it happens or not.

One of Deane's son-n'laws is a Fireman with the Mesa FD and I was so impressed during a swearing in ceremony of the appreciation by the department of the ‘bravery and sacrifices of the families' who support their guy or gal being a firefighter. I always thought of the families of police and firefighters in the war-time reference — they also serve who only sit and wait.

The 100 Club is a local organization supporting the families of fallen and severely injured Arizona Police and Firefighters. You can donate online via a paypal button.

http://www.100club.org/
100 Club
5151 North 19th Avenue
Suite 204
Phoenix, Arizona 85015
(602) 485-0100
Toll Free: 1-877-564-0100


Old Time Radio: http://www.otrcat.com/113.html

Some of my personal favorite old time radio programs are the detective shows including Nero Wolfe, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar and Nick Carter Master Detective. These type of detective or mysteries are considered ‘soft-boiled' as opposed to the tougher or suspense type, with some fun twists.

Here is an episode from Nero Wolfe "Deadly Sellout" starring Sydney Greenstreet.

http://www.otrcat.com/113-NeroWolfe-25-custom.html

Merry 11th Day of Christmas!


-- Catherine, The Herb Lady

12 Days of Christmas - 3rd Day of Christmas

3rd Day of Christmas - December 27th.

East Valley, where the grass was crunchy this morning, the first really cold night of the season brought the temperature down to 30 overnight.

Glazed and exhausted from all the indoor activities? Working in the Desert Garden is a great refresher.

And, consider a pre-New Year resolution to do some hiking. With the many trails and large park systems throughout the Valley, you can always find one to fit your fitness level.

As a former long-distance runner, I let myself go and with my graying age, I have not been in the best of shape. We took of hiking 3 times a week this summer and while I may never be able to run again due to joint issues, I have definitely seen the tremendous improvement. AND, getting outside into the desert is mentally refreshing — it takes the every day issues and reduces them to ‘now' time.

GARDEN
All of your deciduous fruit trees should be almost leafless now and you want to prune them back before they start to bud out, if you have not already pruned them. The challenge is to do this before they start budding if we have a particularly warm December.

Coating/spraying dormant oil on the leafless trees is also done now. Our beloved peach and other stone fruit trees are developed specifically for desert / low chill conditions. The downside is they are more prone to insect damage because the bugs are not totally killed off. Spraying with dormant oil minimizes insert damage and prolongs the life of the fruit trees.

KITCHEN

Arizona garden trees frequently have their own ornaments in the form of ripening citrus fruit and in particular oranges. A long tradition of giving oranges at Christmas time arose out of their rarity in cold climates and their being, truly, one of the few seasonally available fruits in the winter.

An easy treat for the kids to make is chocolate-dipped citrus fruit. Oranges or tangerine sections are wonderful for this when paired with dark chocolate. Milk chocolate also works. Many years ago I learned to make fancy chocolates and while the techniques are fun and beautiful, I also tried different easy ways to produce tasty treats. The ideas below are some I had fun with.

Some points:

1) When peeling the fruit it is important to make sure the sections are not ‘broken' exposing juice — the sections should be completely dry before dipping to avoid the chocolate curdling.

2) Remove the white pith as it is bitter. (If you want to make the absolute most of the fruit, zest the orange peel before peeling and dry, store and you have dried orange peel for baking!)

3) Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler - this is the easiest way. Another is to have a pint mason jar, pot and wash cloth combo. Place the wash cloth in the bottom of the pot, carefully measure water into the pot to come to under 1 inch of the top of the jar. Bring water to low simmer and fill the jar with chocolate, place in the pot to melt, stir as needed. DO NOT let any water get into the chocolate.

4) Chocolate for dipping can be special melting chocolate from suppliers like ABC Decorating in Phoenix or Michael's craft stores. OR, you can use baking chips. We like Ghiradelli 60% cocoa as they are the best in taste (in our opinion) and the "good" anti-oxidant qualities.

5) If the chocolate is not ‘liquid' enough for dipping — it should be quite runny — when melted, add a tablespoon or two of real butter.

CHOCOLATE DIPPED CITRUS
Orange or tangerine sections
melted chocolate
cookie trays, lined with plastic wrap or aluminum foil
have ready a place in refrigerator or freezer where the trays can rest flat
Options: pretzels and candy canes, dried fruit, cheerios, and red, green, gold or silver plastic spoons

Dip each citrus section 1/3 to half way up, wait until it stops drivving, lay each piece on tray — don't let the pieces touch each other. When the tray is filled place in freezer for 15 minutes or refrigerator for about 25-30 minutes until the chocolate is solid again. The dipped fruit will easily pull off the trays. Store in containers in the refrigerator - use within a week (no problem!)

OPTIONS FOR LEFT OVER CHOCOLATE

If you have some chocolate left over try dipping pretzel sticks, candy canes or dried fruit such as apricots.

If you still have some chocolate left over use up by making ‘stacks' — cheerios make a fun ‘crunchy' chocolate treat (and has a little more ‘good things' in it). Gently fold cheerios into the remaining chocolate until well coated. Spoon into miniature paper muffin cups or on the cookie trays. Cool in the frig or freezer.

CANDY CANE BRITTLE: Crush Candy canes into small pieces, pour remaining melted chocolate onto the cookie tray (covered with aluminum foil), spread to thin, sprinkle crushed candy over. Cool in frig or freezer and break into rough pieces.

CHOCOLATE SPOONS: An elegant treat for lovers of coffee or hot chocolate is chocolate cover spoons for stirring. Dip the spoon in the chocolate only to cover the ‘bowl' let excess drip off. They can be placed on a tray to dry or for a really elegant look (no flat spot on the back) you can rig up a drying rack with clothes pins to hold the spoons over a tray to cool.

Enjoy!

THE SPIRIT OF GENEROSITY: If you are like me and every puppy, kitten or cutely-ugly dog or cat up for adoption tugs at your heart, and like me I can't take in any more — consider a donation to a no-kill shelter, or a low-cost spay/neuter organization. As they like to point out, donating saves at least one little life, adopting saves 2 (the one you take home and the space it creates for another).

No extra money? Call the shelters and find out if they can accept pet food coupons. Many can use the coupons the way we would — discounts off the purchase of food for the shelter critters.

Two of my favorite animal charities are Animal Benefit Club and Cat Nip and Tuck (a low cost spay and neuter organization). You can make a donation via Paypal at each site (or send a check). If you use the easy donate button on the site, add about .75 cents to cover the paypal fee.

http://www.catnipandtuck.org/

http://animalsbenefitclub.com/

Old Time Radio: http://www.otrcat.com/113.html

Variety Shows were favorites of radio listeners and particularly at Christmas time, AND during the war. All these old time radio shows include the original commercials and notes about war- time..

December 21, 1944 -- Christmas favorite Bing Crosby sings opens with "Adeste Fideles" first in Latin and then "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" with the Kraft Choral Club, which was Bing's opening Christmas standard every year. The Kraft Choral Club is 70 co-workers of the Kraft offices and factory in Chicago. In 1944, we were in WWII and in the audience there is 100 young ladies from the Navy WAVES and we are reminded that Kraft Cheese only takes two ration points. Listen free.

http://www.otrcat.com/113-BingDec1944-12-custom.html

Merry 3rd day of Christmas!

-- Catherine, The Herb Lady