Not every kid grows up to get to cut down a banana tree; at least not in Germany. On a mission trip to Uganda, Africa, the innkeeper, at the place we called home for two weeks, let me do just that.
He handed me a long butcher knife and said follow me. He told me to reach as high as I could, take that twelve inch blade and cut a V into the tree. A banana tree is hollow, like a tall, fat and juicy cornstalk. By sawing with the knife, both from the left and the right side, I made the two cuts meet, about a foot down, in the middle of the tree.
With the tree leaning toward me, it slowly eased its fruit bunch over and, in this case, settled on the clothes line.
The back half of the tree, which was not cut, became the hinge that gently let the harvest drop.
After the harvest, the banana tree is cut down to ground level. It will sprout new shoots of which only one is let to grow. Each banana tree yields a bunch in about a two year's time.
Now you have it. That and fifty cents will get me a senior cup of coffee!
.
1 comment:
Fascinating, Franz! I didn't know this about bananas; thanks for educating me.
Post a Comment