These so-called Cavendish bananas originated on the Indian Ocean island, and also had the distinction of being seedless.Ĭavendish was known to frequently ship these off as exotic gifts to far-flung friends and contacts, with bananas arriving across parts of Africa, Madagascar and, most influentially, the Canary Islands. William Cavendish, the 6th Duke of Devonshire, had been cultivating a private banana collection in his Chatworth House estate’s greenhouse after having received a shipment from Mauritius in 1834. The reputation of the fruit was nearly ruined for good in those initial post-Gros Michel years.īut one man stepped in with a solution to the global banana crisis. After the Gros Michels of the world died out, and indeed, the entire world’s supply was totally decimated, there was a period of jockeying for a replacement crop.īut sophisticated European and American consumers, having grown accustomed to the fruit, would hardly be persuaded to now pick the seeds out of the various sub-varieties that farmers attempted to push upon the unsuspecting public. Instead of a yellow cartridge full of bullets, their banana – called the Gros Michel, or Fat Mike – held a starchy, creamy dream of a fruit within its peel. What made the banana of Baudin, and later Pouyat, so special was its seedless interior. Red bananas - Photo courtesy of iStock / BDphoto These seeds don’t necessarily make every variety wholly inedible, but they certainly make consuming the fruit a labored affair. But one thing that the majority of banana varieties the world over have in common is the enormous seeds within the fruit. And much of Oceania is home to red bananas, growing wild. Hawaii is known for its Blue Javas, which are mightily resistant to cold temperatures and said to taste like ice cream.
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