Holy Cacao We're Going Bananas!!!

Before you read this blog entry you have to ask yourself one question: How much do I really want to know about bananas? I really hope your level of excitement is something like this:

... And I'm going to assume it was! Today we  found out that we did not know very much and there is a WHOLE HECK OF A LOT more to learn about that curiously sickle shaped fruit you probably had for breakfast.

Our day started out with a boat ride from the STRI dock to Almirante on the mainland, from which we boarded a van and made our way towards the banana plantation and packaging plant. The farm (finca) and packaging plant were located on the border of a small town known as Changuinola. The finca is currently run under fair trade rules, where previously it was owned by a large distributing corporation. Upon arriving to the farm we were all ready to get out and explore.

In the van top to bottom, left to right: Jaron Bowton, Cassie Quackenbush, Robbie Mcnulty, Theresa Berkovitch; Susanna Debell, Christie Ellison, Mandi Cromar; Richard Emlet, and Christy Stumbo. Our two friendly translators on the right: Lena y Carlos!

The first thing that struck me was how colorful the wall-art of the buildings was, as well as the beauty of the natural setting.

Tributary to Rio Changuinola

Christie Ellison with an Immature guanabana fruit!

We were lucky enough to have Alexander as our knowledgeable guide for the day, and he walked us to the crop fields where we began our journey down the rabbit hole. It really is quite the rabbit hole, so strap in and hang on.

Theresa, Susanna, and Robbie heading the pack, with Alexander on the far right

Christy posing with the banana grass

First! A banana plant is not a tree, but a grass and as such one plant is actually grown from a shoot borrowed from a previous plant. In fact quite frequently another shoot will begin to sprout from the base of one that is already standing, the "mother". This characteristic is used to propagate the crop without replanting after each harvest.

Cassie posing next to a chopped shoot that is being preserved for cloning

Alexander thinning the new shoots to reduce nutrient competition.

 As the
majority of the shoots on the crop field are related to each other they are rather susceptible to disease, as most monocultures are. To account for this, fungicides are released over the fields by helicopter.

A leaf being attacked by a fungal disease.

When these new shoot sprout they mark the next generation of banana plant, and will be able to fruit after nine more months. Once the flower begins to produce fruit, how to harvest that fruit becomes a BIG question. Turns out harvesting is a two person job, one to prepare and lower the "hand" of bananas, and the other to receive and carry it.

A banana flower!

Cutting down the shoot to bring the banana hand to a manageable level

Mandi watches as the hand is placed on the "hook and line" system to reduce carrying time.

 Any hand can hold 80-100 bananas and weigh up to ~125lbs!!! The hand is then hooked onto a wire cable, along with a good many others and taxied to the packaging plant by a man on the back of a donkey.

Jaron displays this stellar hand of bananas.

One bad banana...

At the packaging plant the hands undergo inspection looking for bad bananas. Unfortunately, one bad banana means one bad hand of bananas. The quality control is quite scrutinous.

 The hands that survive the inspection go on to further processing, namely sizing and washing. The workers break the hands down to an appropriate size for the market, and then place them in a conveyer bath contraption that washes them and moves them further along towards the packaging. Finally the boxes of copious bananas are loaded into trucks for international and national distribution.

Susanna gives packing some bananas a try.

The label on the final product. Va a Alemania!!(Germany)

Each box bought through fair trade is four dollars more than one bought by a corporate distributor.

Upon seeing the long and eventful process of having a banana and receiving a box of bananas for the road we made our way back to Almirante to meet Christiano with the boat. Before we made our way back to STRI we stopped at a certified organic Cacao finca on the far side of the Isla de Colon.

  We were kindly greeted by the foreman,Timothy Brown, who brought us up from the mangroves to the processing building. There we received a brief introduction from Calvin who then led us on a tour through the cacao laiden rainforest where we viewed a lot more than we bargained for. Not only did we get to see multiple ages of cacao plants and the varying ripeness of the pods (containing the valuable seeds!), but a wide variety of trees, plants, wildlife, and fungi!!!

Calvin provides a brief history, and explains what they do on the finca.

Before I get too carried away with the bonus findings of the trip, a few facts about the cacao and it's history would seem appropriate. Its delicious and valuable qualities were first recognized by the Mayans and Incans, who would dry it in the sunlight before further use (Nope, it wasn't Willy-Wonka, sorry.) Before the cacao seeds get dried this is what they look like:

Three cacao fruit pods; the most left is ripe.

A less than 3 year old cacao tree.

A cracked and delicious cacao pod, containing seeds(the beginnings of chocolate) and the tasty substance covering the seeds.

The tissue that they are surrounded in is DELICIOUS and a little strange. They're a lot like a Mentos, take one and pop it in your mouth and hang out with the flavor for a while, just try not to swallow one whole. While the cacao is most famous for the world renown confection, chocolate, the plant lends itself to other uses as well. The skin of the pod, if scraped off and turned into a pulp can be used to help clot blood if placed on a wound. The tree itself provided the simple pleasure of shade, which I can personally attest was in dire need by that point in the day.

Aside from the wonders of the cacao we learned of, a number of other interesting biological items were found during our walk through the eden that was Calvin's day to day setting:

All in all September 6, 2013 was a really good day for the OIMB crew in Panama. We certainly learned more than we planned with regards to those yellow delights and were pleasantly surprised by what lay inside the pods of the cacao plant. People got hot, then sweaty, tired, and almost irritable at points through the day, but we all came out of there with smiles and light hearts. Good job team!

The whole crew! Including Timothy Brown.

The blogger, Willie BotPo!

Hasta luego!!