You Can Eat Them Raw

A while back, I wrote about my plantains. I have a couple of trees. The nursery guy said they were big, long plantains, just like the ones you get at the grocery.

The fruit appeared and got mature. Funny, the plantains were short. They were maybe seven inches long. But they were as big around as regular plantains. Okay, I guessed that was still all right.

I peeled a green one and nuked it. I ate a bite. The texture was wrong, and it had no flavor. But maybe I had cooked it too early. Maybe it was some kind of special plantain that had to ripen a little before it could be eaten.

That was a few days ago. Today I started peeling a yellow one. Plantains are very hard to peel, unless they’re pretty ripe. I did what i usually do. I made slits down the peel with a knife, and then I started yanking the peel off.

Hmm. It sure peeled easy.

Then I looked at the flesh. Plantains are kind of mango-colored on the inside. Not quite as dark, but same general color. This one was white. What on earth?

It smelled like a banana. I took a bite. It WAS a banana. My plantain trees are producing bananas. They gave me the wrong trees.

Now I have to figure out what to do every month with thirty pounds of bananas shaped more or less like a beer can.

Here’s to regularity.