Bananas
Trip Start
Aug 01, 2007
1
31
39
Trip End
Sep 16, 2007
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San Pedro Sula,
Honduras
Friday, August 31, 2007
At the end of a long, bumpy and dusty road we came across the plantation's security booth. The booth was a metal roofed hut with 'Castro' as the enforcer. The enforcer approached the van in full militia attire, complete with 4 guns holstered to his side and a giant rifle in his arms. He raised the gate and we entered the plantation by slowly driving over wooded flanks acting as a road across a little river.
The banana cooperative was once owned by Dole Corporation during the early 90's, but the company left it after Hurricane Mitch devastated the region. The plantation is now locally owned. However, it now sells their bananas to Dole in the states, primarily to southern and southwest parts of the states. We drove from about 7 Km until we reached a processing plant were a giant Dole truck was parked.
A worker took us into the fields to show us the lifecycle of a banana plant and the quality control processes that were involved. The bunches of bananas are all covered with a numbered bag. The bag helps protect the bananas from insects, determines which bunch gets cut, but also keeps the fruit hot. Bananas like it hot, and the bag keeps the temperature raised.
42 lbs of fruit
I also got to watch as they determined with bananas got to be cut down and which were not. In order for Dole to buy the bananas, a certain percent of the bananas on the bunch must be a given diameter. And, yes, they measure this with a nifty little device that looks like an angular 'C'. The large bananas are exported and the small bananas stay within the country. This is why you can not find a large banana in all of Central America. The bananas are always very tiny.There are also certain QC standards that Dole requires their suppliers to have. One of these includes each and every layer in a bunch of bananas to be separated with a piece of plastic to reduce blemishes to the skin.
Since a Dole truck was being loaded that day, I got to watch the workers at work and talk with them a little. The workers wanted to practice their English, and I wanted to practice my Spanish! Each box that we receive in the states is exactly 42 lbs and is the best of the bananas. The truck that was being loaded was bound for the closest boat dock 2 hours away and was then going on a ship to Mississippi. During the entire process, the bananas would stay at a cold temperature, until reaching our stores in the states.
As a parting gift the workers gave me a case of bananas. What was I going to do with 42 lbs of bananas? I took a bunch of green bananas and ended up giving the rest to my guide for the morning.
I learned that if I had access to a kitchen I could have had fried green bananas...which is actually really good and is the equivalent of french fries at home.
Colleen, a friend of college, flew in later that night for the weekend. She first visited a friend in Mexico and then came on down to see me for the weekend. I am so excited! We are going to head to the third largest city of Honduras, La Ceiba- The city that plays. I am looking forward to catching up with Colleen over some tasty beverages on the beach.
Comments
protein shake
with 42 lbs of bananas i would do 1 of 2 things
1) have mom make banana bread!!!
2) just put them all in my protein shake
sooooooo good!