Finally Something I Can Grow

I have been to Homestead and Redland, which is where most of Dade County’s nurseries are located. I went to Going Bananas and got me two plantain trees and a dessert banana tree.

Let me continue to amaze you with tales of my life. Before I went, I decided to call my sister and see if she wanted anything from that area. She said she wanted to go along, to get some vines. So off we went.

The guy at the banana place was very knowledgeable and helpful; he told me what I’m doing wrong with my current trees. I gave him one of my bananas (which I brought along for research purposes), and his best guess was that the variety was Orinoco. He said there are three kinds of banana-like fruit. Eating bananas, cooking bananas, and plantains. The Orinoco is a cooking banana. It tastes great raw, but apparently there is something about it that makes it suitable for cooking. My guess is that the firmness of the flesh is the secret. Ordinary bananas dissolve when you heat them.

What a spread this guy has. Beautiful fruit trees as far as the eye could see. Which was not far, because the trees obscured the outside world. Mameys, papayas, mangoes, bananas (obviously)…he even had what appeared to be a prig ki nu bush. And he had a classic Florida ranch-style house in the middle of it, with a big screened-in porch. If you’re going to live in South Florida, this is the correct way. Peace, quiet, low crime, acreage, and beautiful plants. I was inspired. I wish I knew enough about plants to make a living that way, because I’d do it in a heartbeat.

He was a former Miamian. There are very few native Miamians in existence. Many of them left when life in Miami became hectic and disagreeable.

There may be one more reason he left. My sister was wearing a T-shirt with a verse from Colossians on it. Apparently, it was one of a line of T-shirts. He noticed it and said he had one, and that he found it very comfortable.

Back when I belonged to a church, I knew a guy who ran a nursery in that area. Wonderful guy. Owned half a plane, with a non-Christian buddy. Had every kind of tool imaginable. Or at least it seemed that way to me. I remember the church needed angle iron cut and welded up for some reason, and a bunch of us drove out to his business, and he had some kind of a shear permanently mounted on a bench. I was impressed beyond words. You just put the steel on it and pulled a handle, and it cut whatever lengths you wanted.

He and his wife made a great living, selling plants. He said it was basically a matter of “finding the right Mexican.” He didn’t mean it in a racist way. He meant that they hired a guy who answered the phones and ran the place, and he took a lot of the work off of their shoulders.

He was a machinist in Vietnam, I believe. Kept fighters flying.

I just planted my trees. I got a Nam Wa banana, a PHIA 21 plantain, and a French Horn plantain. And I bought 50 lbs of special banana fertilizer.

All I have to do now is sit out there in a lawn chair, stare at the trees, and wait for bananas.