Cavendish Banana

Uses : Edible, Forage. Native to : Southeast Asia
     Cavendish Bananas do not really grow well here in West Florida. Actually they grow very well with plenty of supplementary water during the dry period and protection from freezing in the winter. So I'm saying they need a lot of care to thrive this far north of the Caribbean. A truly beautiful plant, bananas are the idealization of the word 'tropical'. Cavendish bananas are a dwarf variety more suited to the home landscape. It should be planted in the wettest, warmest place in your property, sheltered from cold winds in the winter. It can handle full sun if receiving enough water. High winds will rip the leaves, but the 'trees' seem no worse for wear.
     My father thinks that they need to have two long growing seasons with a frost-free winter in between in order to have fruit. It sounds reasonable, as my bananas have never had a flower and neither have his. When I lived in Riverside, Jacksonville, one of my neighbors had a Cavendish that had flowers and then fruit, and it was beautiful. I can only guess that their yard had a very excellent micro climate.
       Because the fruits of the plant lack viable seeds, propagation is via the new shoots the plant creates like bamboo. It is said that you can tell a plant has been in cultivation for a long time when it can no longer reproduce sexually but requires humans to transplant. Like taro. Actually these bananas have a lot in common with taro as they are grown in similar parts of the world and prefer moist, humid conditions.
     Perhaps most people are pretty familiar with the banana, but did you know the skin/peel is edible as well? In Africa a banana wine is produced, for local consumption only, apparently, and is known for being one of the most nutritious of fermented foods as the wine contains most of the B vitamins and some of the potassium the original bananas had. Dehydrated banana chips are also very nutritious and have a long shelf life if made properly. Plantains, bananas' sister, are used in the same way potatoes are.
     Banana leaves are used in Africa to wrap foods in like a packaging, and as disposable plates. Some people wrap meats in banana leaves before baking for added tenderness and flavor. The leaves can be used for thatching and are frequently used as a natural umbrella. Leaves and pseudostems make a decent fodder for ruminants, but are not complete nutritionally. One source recommends banana pseudostems and sweet potato vines in combination, or urea. Ick.

IFAS - Bananas

Michael Pollan - The Omnivore's Next Dilemma

Michael Pollan about Sustainable Agriculture

      Michael Pollan is one of the foremost speakers about the national food situation currently facing us. His non-threatening persona and charming eloquence make him a popular choice. Most importantly, he advocates many of the same ideals that I advocate, the least of which are that people need to get back to producing healthful food and eating locally.
     This video is an exerpt from a larger one that he made as a follow-up to his book and documentary, an Omnivore's Dilemma and the Botany of Desire. This interview piece specifically describes Joel Salatin's Polyface Farms, a sustainable protein production operation in Virginia. Please comment, criticize.

Slow Coffee

How to brew coffee without a coffeemaker
     It should be noted that I have a drip coffee maker and a diffuser, but I still prefer this method because it's so easy. And it uses no electricity. It creates very little mess. There's no heat or steam warming up my kitchen either.
     Simply take an old jar with a lid and add your coffee to it as you prefer. I usually use about four teaspoons for this size jelly jar. Then fill the jar all the way to the top with regular water from your tap or filter. Put the lid on securely, then give your mix a few shakes. Put the jar in the back of the fridge and ignore for two or more days. I usually leave it in for three or four.
     Then when you are ready to drink, grab a cheap coffee filter, filter basket, or heck even a piece of good cheesecloth will probably work. Place your filter into a food-grade funnel, place the drain of the funnel into a carafe or your cup. Shake the mix again, then pour into your filter/funnel contraption. The idea is to get all the grounds and coffee out of your jar and into your filter, then your cup. Take your filter and grounds outside and feed the plants with it.
     I would be cautious not to leave your coffee mix for too long in the refrigerator. Any chlorine in your municipal tapwater should inhibit some bacterial growth, in theory anyway. Coffee has natural oils and compounds which can and do go bad over time, and I'm sure it would be a displeasing ferment. I don't let ours sit back there more than a week, not that it would ever last that long around here.

Jelly Jar Sauerkraut

     There is a glut of literature available about the benefits of fermented food, the real truth is that ferments are something that every chef should know but does not thanks to commercially packaged crap at the grocery store. Sauerkraut from the grocery store is NOT tasty. It is a bit salty and sour, which makes it good for a hotdog, maybe. But the kraut from the gas station and the kraut from the store are missing the valuable probiotics that you get from making it yourself.

     The first time I tried to ferment sauerkraut I used a repurposed old crock pot from a slow cooker. I had the crock loaded with yummy cabbage and plastic bagss of water to weigh down the cabbage. Salted, I put the lid of the crockpot back on and put it in a corner of the kitchen to ferment. Big Mistake. Not realizing the jar needed to be mostly airtight to keep out the tiny black flies that occasionally come in the back door, I lifted off the bags a week later to find tiny fly larvae all over the edges of the cabbage. I was so disgusted I threw the entire crock into the trash!
     Attempt number two: I decided to try a much smaller vessel this time, a jelly jar. I pureed the cabbage in the blender with some water and added about three teaspoons of sea salt, which is far more than is recommended but hey, this is the south, I want to inhibit most of those microorganisms, right? I put a coffee filter under the lid and put the lid loosely on the jar (thinking the flies should have trouble with that setup) and put it on my counter. Three weeks later, skimmed off the pinkish kraut from the top and it smells delicious.       Success.

University of Alaska Saurkraut Guide

Elephant Ears, Taro, Dasheen, Colocasia esculenta

"The Potato of the Warm, Humid Tropics"

Uses : Edible, Aquaculture. Native to : Unknown. Naturalized to tropical areas worldwide.
     Yes, this is the same ordinary bulb that can be purchased at the big box stores in the springtime. It can be grown anywhere, just about, that has at least seven months of warm weather. It can grow in just about any pretty moist soil, or even mud and shallow ponds, but standing water with no aeration is known to cause poor growth, as is true for most big aquatic plants.
     That being said, I accidentally let mine wilt during a month of hot, humid breezes. I keep a thick layer of mulch over my elephant ears, which I do not have many of at the moment, and the breezes got to them. The largest leaf drooped out over my carport, which just made the plant look sad. That leaf never quite recovered.
     Be sure not to confuse the elephant ear with caladium, which also grows from a bulb. They are completely unrelated plants and caladiums are not edible.

     The leaves and roots are edible with cooking. Apparently there is a calcium crystal which breaks down when heat is applied. The crystal scratches and burns the mouth and throat when eaten raw. It could be good fodder for animals after cooking as well. The leaves can be prepared as you would any green, or traditionally with coconut milk as the Hawaiians prepare it. The roots can be eaten like a potato, for example baked in the oven for an hour. Corms can be mashed and fermented into a paste called poi.
     The roots can be harvested for the base of the taro and the tops replanted. Cut just below the apical meristem. The tricks to this is to only use the corms from the largest, healthiest plants and to cut the corm off below the area where the leaves join the corm so that some corm remains. Then the plant is replanted. Also at this time offsets are separated from the parent to develop on their own. Leaves are usually removed during replanting so just corms and stems are placed in the ground or mud.
     Taro is a known escaped invasive plant in Florida, and the state website says it's illegal to sell or reproduce this plant. Yet I have seen that the tubers can be bought at your local big box hardware store. Why is that?

Well-Depths in Florida

     Though there are days that it seems Florida has more fresh water than we know what to with, that is not completely true. Rainfall is uneven throughout the year, and most of us are not wealthy enough to live on one of our beautiful springs.

Silver Springs

     When considering property to purchase, well depth and quality needs to be considered. Some coastal areas will not have potable groundwater, and other areas may have problems with sulfur, uranium, and other naturally occurring minerals. The water will have to be tested, however, most of the state has access to our beautiful 98% pure aquifer, which is completely recharged with rainwater. No rain means a very thirsty state, and according to USGS Floridians have withdrawn 500% more water since the 1950s.
     Wells probably should be used in conjunction with rainwater harvesting. Since the population emigrations to Florida in the 1950s, more people and industry have been drawing from the aquifers, an already fragile resource.  Saltwater intrusion and lake levels dropping, combined with sinkholes, have made that plain. Sinkholes are an open wound of the water system, allowing pathogens in to infect otherwise potable water with contaminants like nitrates. Rainwater harvesting from rooftops also requires no electricity for pumping.
     There is no one resource for obtaining information about water quality for an area short of drilling and hoping the sample comes back clean. Neighbors may be able to give you information about their wells. Assume all local golf courses are not going to give you information.
     In general, the aquifer is between 100 and 200 feet down in most of central Florida. The ground is frequently a layer of sand on layers of limestone and dolomite. Rainfall does affect groundwater levels, in a period of intense drought hundreds of shallower wells near Pensacola had to be redrilled or moved inland. Underneath some areas the aquifer is under pressure, which might result in artesian well once drilled. Artesian wells have special regulations regarding reporting and capping (of course).
     Shallower wells, about 50 feet deep, are used most frequently for irrigation (think golf courses, nurseries, and citrus farms) and usually have lower quality water than the deeper wells.

Zebra Aloe, Aloe zebrina, Aloe maculata

Uses : Medicinal, Edible, Xeriscaping, Forage. Native to : Africa.
     This little survivor is a perennial here in Florida. Its thick, fleshy leaves allow it to store moisture during periods of irregular rainfall. It quickly, probably yearly, sends up offsets via shoots from the roots. Zebra aloe is a short little plant that will send up large showy pink flowers on a somewhat alien-like stalk that looks very little like the plant itself.
     These little aloes hybridize easily with one another, making them very difficult to concretely identify.

     To harvest the edible part of the aloe, first break off a leaf, then cut the skin off very carefully. Take the meat and drop into a smoothie (aloe is eaten raw to maximize the anti-inflammatory properties. I suspect that eaten in large quantities aloe might cause diarrhea, so please be mindful, particularly if giving to your animals, who might not like it anyway.
     The sap can be squeezed from the leaves and used as a soap. I have also used the sap in very small amounts for sunburn relief, and it works just as well as the store bought stuff.  It might be even better because it has no coloring or additives.
     I was able to find a very interesting looking recipe for aloe wine, but was unable to locate the original article the recipe was sourced from... here's the recipe. It looks like it would probably make about a gallon of wine.

It’s made with 5 stalks of aloe vera, 2 pounds of granulated sugar, 1/2 cup of raisins, 8 cups of water, 1 teaspoon of yeast, and the juice of one orange. Peel the aloe and cut it into cubes and add it to a container with the raisins, orange, and sugar. Next, boil the water and pour over the aloe vera mixture. Then, dissolve the yeast in luke warm water and pour the yeast into the cooled aloe vera mixture. Cover and let it remain for 21 days, stirring occasionally. Strain and put the wine into a sterilized bottle.

Aloe Vera Wine Recipe

Crinum Lily, Crinum augustum

Uses : Xeriscaping. Native to : India and Asia
     The crinum species is a large family of flowering bulbs that look similar to daylilies albeit larger and more tropical. They are actually closely related to amaryllis, and can grow very well in locations that amaryllis succeed in. Like many bushy non-natives, they do better in part sun rather than full, unless you intend to supplementally irrigate.
     Unfortunately this flowering beauty is not edible and cannot be used as forage for livestock, as it grows so well here in barely amended sand. None of the amaryllis family are edible.
     A thin layer of mulch does benefit the plant, and it will, in time, produce young bulbs that you can transfer elsewhere or give away to your friends.

Loquat, Eriobotrya japonica

Uses : Edible Fruit, Forage. Native to China.
     This is a small tree, maybe 20-30 feet tall, but can easily be trimmed into a dwarf style with yearly pruning after fruiting. It is not native, but like the mandarin orange, it can withstand the mild winters in most of Florida. It has been reported that it will not set fruit north of Jacksonville, and I can say that I have never seen loquats growing in Duval, but it could be unknown there.
     It sets its flowers in the fall and fruit ripens in the spring. The fruit can be eaten fresh, with the seed removed, or cooked into jellies, added to sauces, or used in any way you would use an apple or pear. They can be dehydrated or canned, with the seed and peel removed for canning. The fruit should be an orange color and soft when fully ripe, if hrd and yellow it is not ready. The fruit ripens on the tree and will not ripen adequately once picked.


     I suspect the reason not more people enjoy this delicious fruit is that it has a shelf-life of about a week. I have seen it at the farmer's market just once, and never in the grocery store. Usually all the fruit ripens on the tree at about the same time, much like its cousin the apple. Also wine can be made from the crushed fruit in much the same way as you would make apfelwein. A winery near Gainesville makes delicious loquat wine, but it is only available locally.
     The tree does not seem to have problems with pests, unless you consider birds a pest when they ninja all your ripe fruit.

Loquat Wine Recipe

4 pounds fresh loquats
2 1/4 pounds sugar
Water to one gallon
1 campden tablet (crushed)
1/2 teaspoon pectic enzyme
1 teaspoon acid blend
1/4 teaspoon grape tannin
1/2 teaspoon yeast nutrient
Wine yeast

Tomatoes in Florida, Solanum lycopersicum

Uses : Edible Fruit. Native to : Mexico, Peru
     There is a lot to talk about when it comes to tomatoes, but only a fraction of it is relevant in Florida. Information is readily available from IFAS and even the public library regarding pest control, so we won't go into that here. And the pests do love our tomatoes!
     Perhaps the most important part of tomato growing is the timing of planting the seeds. Whether you start seeds inside or buy seedlings or sow directly in the ground, it is really all about timing. I would say tomatoes are not for the person who puts things off, because late planting will delay flowering and fruiting which will make tomatoes not really worth growing.

     Here we can grow tomatoes in the early spring and late fall. The plants do not tolerate the hottest part of the summer, though your season can be extended into the beginning of the summer by moving your plants into a microclimate, which is why we have had so much success with growing our tomatoes in five gallon buckets. A sheltered part of your yard away from the warm breezes is ideal, and shade, especially midday or afternoon is preferable. Tomatoes need loose soil that drains well, with plenty of nutrition, and frequent watering when the temperatures approach the 80's.
     I personally think cherry tomatoes are much better to grow here than the traditionally larger varieties, as they produce an edible fruit very quickly after flowering, while the larger varieties need more time to grow out the fruit. This additional time factor gives the birds, squirrels, and bugs more time to take advantage of your delicious offering.
     Starting seeds indoors is not necessary but I highly recommend it. This last year we started the seeds in the five gallon buckets on the back porch, and brought the buckets indoors on the nights that dipped below freezing. This fall we will probably do the same, and then set the buckets out for some shady protection at the beginning of September. Another benefit to the bucket system is that we put in potting soil from the store - not something I would normally do, but the potting soil already has fertilizer added.
     Saving seed from season to season is easy to do at home in your kitchen, by harvesting from your best fruits and washing very thoroughly, then drying. Most plants are self-pollinating so even one successful plant will give you more seed to work with next year. Store seeds dry and away from light. Tomato seeds are great gifts!
      The plants are members of the nightshade family, and so are inedible to humans and animals. Dead plants are only good for chopping and composting.