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The Banana Story

Next time you grab a banana, consider the fact that you’re about to devour the world’s very first fruit. Originally from the region that includes the Malay Peninsula, Indonesia, the Philippines and New Guinea, traders took bananas with them as they travelled to India, Africa and Polynesia. These bananas, however, barely resembled the fruit we know today. They contained many large, hard seeds and minimal pulp and were considered to be strange and exotic alien fruit. Cross-breeding of two varieties of wild bananas, the Musa Acuminata and the Musa Baalbisiana, in Africa in about 650 AD, resulted in bananas becoming seedless and more like the delicious fruit we enjoy today.

Origins of Pineapples

Pineapples are thought to have originated in Brasil and Paraguay in South America. They were first discovered by Europeans in 1493 on the Caribbean Island now known as Guadeloupe. Pineapples arrived in

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Grow A Custard Apple Tree.
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How To Prune It.

The young fruit of the custard apples are making good progress now, and should reach the ripening stage in a couple of months. If planted in a part of the garden where plenty of water is available these trees will bear a prolific crop of fruit, and are an acquisition to any garden plot.
When planted out, the trees should be put back to a height of about 20 to 24 inches, and the two top buds which are on opposite sides of the stem be allowed to develop. The following spring these two branches should be cut back to not more than one foot in length, less if growth is weak, and each allowed to develop two buds, a young tree, having four main limbs, being thus formed.
These four branches are again cut back the following spring, only

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Making full use of a new fig crop

This week’s basic recipe section deals with the subject of figs – delicious, delicate fruit that comes in with a rush and has to be dealt with quickly.
A letter from Mrs. Shirley Cane, Pacific Highway, Slack’s Creek, reminds us that the fig crop is now ready and in a week or so will have reached its peak.
Mrs. Cane said trees in the Sunnybank area were now heavy with fruit, and that while figs were “pricey” in the shops they could be purchased from the growers at a much reduced rate.
Here are some of the fig recipes she recommends:-
For dessert
The ripe fruit simply peeled, chopped, and sprinkled with a little lemon juice and sugar is ready to be served with cream, ice cream, or custard. Stewed whole and unpeeled (prick over with a fork to allow the syrup to

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Many fig tree varieties crop twice each. The first (or breba) crop form on last years wood. It is often possible to see the tiny fruits dormant on the tree over winter. A heavier crop is then produced later in summer when the new growth develops.

Fruit normally forms in the leaf axils on new wood, so pruning a fig is a straightforward and infrequent task. Give it a light trim in winter to stimulate new growth for fruiting, but leave some old wood on the tree for the breba fruiting. Dead and diseased wood should be removed and more mature trees may need heavier pruning to encourage new growth.

Harvesting is the best part of growing a fabulous fig. Fruit should be picked when they are slightly soft to the touch and smelling sweet. Figs will not continue to ripen once they have been removed from

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