Tog Tan

This is what happens in a place where there are 'naners everywhere...
Sometimes people grow them for different reasons, not just for eating. Many are used for shade and they don't care about the fruits which result from them. Sometimes these shade plants will have many pups getting out from an orchard and grow by the roadside. The town hall people will cut down these plants as they tend to take up the place along the side of the road and pose to be danger for motorists. Well, sometimes, they do miss out a few or quite a few. It is because almost every house have a couple of 'naners in their yards, no one will harvest the fruits. When ripen, the animals will gnaw at them and they will just rot off the plant.

This is also true in the city where many people grow the Pisang Serendah, a form of the DC. They will grow them outside in front or behind their houses. It was a fad in the past and now they are not popular as they cannot compare to the taste of the staple cultivars sold such as the Pisang Berangan and Pisang Mas. These plants will fruit at 4ft high with small bunches due to the negligence. Fruits for the taking if you care.

I have seen plants grown from small pieces of corm thrown out and mature into fruiting plants. In the past I have not bothered to harvest them but seeing them going to waste, now I take the trouble to cut down the fruits to give away to friends.

My booty, (car booth, I mean) with quite a few types of cultivars I harvested along the road. I am sooo happy getting the Pisang Rajah (green bunch on the lower right of the pix). They are real yummy when simmered with butter. Slurrp!



Last Sunday while my guys were fixing a new shelter at my nursery, I decided to take a drive and see what I can find near my place. It was quite fruitful and I came back with a couple of bunches of 'naners, like Pisang Mas and even the hard to find Pisang Rajah.

There were times when I was on my way home from the nursery and felt like having a little bite. I would go into a particular area where there are many types of cultivars grown semi wild - ie., left to fend for themselves in the open areas - and as always I will be able to get a small bunch of fully ripen fruits with a couple eaten off by animals. Well, 5-6 fruits is a good snack on any day. So, waste not, want not! Let the city folks be happy with this bounty.

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

chong

Thanks for your post, Tog!

Brings back a lot of memories for me, growing up in the Philippines just after WWII. (I was a war baby, not a baby boomer, but that's another story . . .) Lots and lots of "wild" bananas along roads and vacant lots within just 3 or 4 block radius. And other fruits, too! Some of which, as common as they were then, would be scarce even during my high school days, and more so during college. Progress, I guess. Glad there are places in the world where this experience is still possible. I suppose that in remote areas in the Philippines, this situation still exists.

Bob

Great stuff Tog and Chong. I could tell my stories about wild strawberries and raspberries, and patches of rhubarb from the abandoned farm fields but it wouldn't match up.

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chong

You should, Bob! In the Philippines, when I was growing up, strawberries were considered rare fruits because they were only grown in Baguio, Mountain Province, where due to its elevation, remains cool all year long. The temperature there is like Seattle in the late Spring and early Summer! Though now, there are new varieties that grow in the lowlands.

During our trips through the Al-Can (Alaska-Canada) highway between the Yukon Territory and Upper British Columbia, the perimeter of some rest areas would be growing wild Alpine Strawberries. The sweet ones were a treat, as they were very sweet. But the sour ones . . . really, really sour!

frog7994

that is really cool to just find that driving around. I'm impressed! All though I have seen some fruit on plants around here it's just that I don't think people would aprecheat me going into there yard and cutting them off. ( LOL)

Bananaman88

Thanks, Tog! That's so cool that you can just find these growing along side the road. You always have the best stories and photos to share! Again, I think these would make great photos for the magazine to show some of the variety of bananas out there.

Bob

Would still make a great story James,,,,, Have someone stealthily follow you with a camera too....

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Tog Tan

Chong, Bob, James and Brent.... What is happening now is only a fraction of what happened when I was a kid. Up to the mid '70s we still can find almost all the various fruit trees in the wild all for the taking. We would make it a point and cycle to the places where we knew the nice tasting durians would be and look for the fallen fruits and eat till we burst! Once, when I was a Scout and was out camping in the jungle, we found a Rambai tree in season. The whole gang of us ate till we ended with heck of a diarrhea! Those were the days.

When I was in Myanmar a while ago, I saw mango trees fruiting everywhere. I mean it is like the national tree and the fruits were overwhelming. I saw gangs of kids collecting them by the baskets. I was wondering what they were going to do with them.

Over here in SEA, most village folks are very generous with the goodies. All you have to do is to ask and you can eat your tummy full. When I was in Thailand near the Cambodian border, the rambutans were in season and I have never seen rambutans so bountiful even though it's common in M'sia. The people kept asking us to eat all the different types to bursting. To make them happy we bought like 300b which is less than $10 and they gave us till the booth of our Mercedes was full.

I just hope with all the modernization crap, things like these will not be gone.

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

island cassie

Great tales and great pictures too guys! We don't get much fruit going to waste and the roadside nanas soon disappear when they have plumped out. Always hordes of little boys going after the big mangos - sometimes people divide the tree amongst themselves and write their names on the mango skin to show which fruit belongs to them.

momoese

Wow, that's amazing Tog! Thanks for the stories and the pictures everyone!

Dalmatiansoap

Nice storry Tog.
We had simillar situation with figs around here but as U say "modernisation" monster of nowdays makes them allmost gone, at least in the wild. Same thing is going to be with grapes.

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Ueberwinden

Tog,

The only story I have close is as a boy eating the wild boydsenberries and mulberries. We would look for the ones the were dark purple, they were the sweetest ones. Most of the times the birds would beat us to them, they seem to know just the right timing.

Michael

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Michael_Andrew

As a boy growing up in Oklahoma we would come across wild plumbs and persimmons. I remember finding this huge persimmon I climbed and sat on one of the limbs and ate the biggest plumpest fruit I ever came across. The green ones are especially good.

Michael

austinl01

Great story and picture! Thanks for posting.

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Arkansas River Valley

Average January Low: 31°F, Average August High: 92°F
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Patty in Wisc

You are mentioning fruits I have never tasted - persimmons, mangos etc. Lots of wild grapes & wild asparagus around here everywhere but not much else unless we climb a fence into someones yard LOL.
Thanks for the pic & story Tog. It amazes me how well you can ID - know what kinds of nannas you are picking!!

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Patty in Wisc has sadly passed away 9/05/11. We will miss you Patty.

Bananaman88

Yeah, sure they are! I remember tricking one of my cousins into eating a green persimmon one time when we were kids! You should have seen the look on his face. I'll be he's never tried another persimmon since. I love the ripe ones but you definitely don't want to get a hold of a green one!

Mark Hall

Tog, I hope you checked those Bananas for Spiders You get the odd one s show up over here in the supermarkets..not seen one personally , and I hope I don't.

Good thread by the way

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Time Flies like an Arrow.....Fruit flies like a Banana.

Tog Tan

Thanks Mark. No spiders amongst the 'naners here but there are up to a hundred of big earwig bugs in the Pisang Mas. They seem to live there.

I was a spider and centipede freak, had a huge collection of most of the known species of Tarantulas. I had some tarantulas and centipedes which would make a quick meal of a baby mouse.

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

Christian

I think your last comment put us all off this thread now, Tog!!
;-)

Christian

frog7994

YA! I ate a green persimmon once or i should say I bit into one once that's about how many time anyone will ever do. LOL