bananimal

Looking at the bunch today I'm thinking it has filled in as much as possible. I want to cut them down green to try a few different recipes.

Since this is my first harvest I'd like the opinion of all you guys that have grown the Ae before. The fingers seem small to me, but this is a bunch off a 4 year old pstem and has seen a lot of stress.

Note the spots showing up on the skins. This has always been the "fully grown" signal for me to cut a bunch down.

Dan

sunfish

Do they mature the same as other bananas ?

robguz24

I'd do what I normally do and wait for some slight yellowing. They are going to be best for cooking that way too. The distinction between the colors has to almost diseaapear for out of hand eating They can be pretty yellow and still underripe as far as eating out of hand. Not like a cavendish that way. Maoli bananas can get quite large, 7-8" but the A'ea'es I've had have been smaller, more like the size of a large grocery store banana.

__________________
My micro-farm

Stay on my Big Island banana farm cottage

Yug

I echo what robguz24 said, I'd wait for slight yellowing of some before I'd harvest the bunch.

bananimal

I guess so Tony. Trouble is I need to get on a ladder and look at the fingers up close. I expect they have filled in but the fruit are stunted from stress.

Rob and Yug --- I come from a long line of folks that say cooking bananas are for cooking.

You can only eat them fully green or fully ripe.

And never out of hand, period!

When it stops raining I'll get on the ladder and cut them down if ready.

Will post later.

Yug

When my wife gets a bunch of Saba bananas for cooking they are generally slightly yellow, rarely solid green. If we waited an extra week, they'd be sweet enough to eat without cooking, but that is not the best way to enjoy them. So we generally use cooking bananas for cooking.

My Ae Ae will probably be used only for cooking also, but it will not be cut until some yellowing is seen, just like the rest of the cooking bananas we get here. Some folks like the solid green, but we don't.

robguz24

Lol. It was my understanding that all the major Hawaiian types were dual purpose, sort of like Dwarf Brazillians that most people here don't think of as a cooking banana. I'm also firmly in the "cook it slightly yellow" camp. :-) I actually have a friend whose favorite out of hand banana is the A'ea'e! I find it just ok that way.

__________________
My micro-farm

Stay on my Big Island banana farm cottage

venturabananas

I'm with you Rob, I think that traditionally all the Hawaiian bananas were eaten both raw when very ripe, and more often cooked. Ae Ae ripe and raw are good, but not great to my tastes, but cooked and ripe, they are outstanding.

__________________

bananimal

That's good to know later on when they ripen.

Couldn't check out the bunch this PM. Kept raining.

Yug

I think that the only Hawaiian banana I'd consider eating without cooking first would be in the Iholena group, or perhaps the Hapai. All the rest, I'd use as a cooking type.

venturabananas

I agree that Maoli subgroup bananas (e.g., Ae Ae and Ele Ele) are best cooked, but for those of us who can't buy "Hawaiian Apple" bananas in the supermarket because we don't live in Hawaii , I'd say a very ripe Ae Ae is as good or better than your average supermarket Cavendish. To my tastes, anyway.

__________________

sunfish