The History of the Banana

https://youtu.be/YVVD1cYelUE?is=ADLXFR_-mIMdDfom

Here gets into ancient innovations that allowed bananas to be grown outside of their native habitat in Papua New Guinea.

If you haven't seen his content, and you get sucked in, then settle in without distractions - this is the opposite end of spectrum of TikTok, etc. Also, don't watch his "History of Sugar" documentary if you are feeling depressed. Instead watch the "History of Curry".

> He said: "It's basically like having a mouth full of ball bearings with half a teaspoon of banana on them."

Maybe we can iterate on the texture some more here.

In other words, it used to be MUCH warmer in the northern latitudes.

But this is wild. I am only in my 40s but I've seen the climate change significantly and it having a major impact on flora and fauna.

When I was a kid, English wine was a joke and now it's winning prizes because we have the same climate French vineyards did when I was a child. The idea of growing olives in the UK was laughable, but now in the South East of England it's starting to look commercially viable. Only 10 years ago I remember days with highs over 30C being rare, but we just had two weeks of them, accompanied by tropical nights (not dropping below 20C), for the first time I remember.

And now... bananas. Which is, pun intended, utterly bananas.

It feels too late to stop the worst of the damage, but the idea of this accelerating and getting worse is just astonishing to me, that within my lifetime I'd witness such a huge swing in climatology.

Wong, 45, has presented for BBC series' Grow Your Own Drugs and Secrets of Your Food.

Curious what is the latest on genetic improvement of banana against Panama disease ?

Winters are too cold for them here. So either you heavily mulch them and they start from the roots every spring while the stems die in winter. Or you learn how to wrap the stems to protect them over winter.

It might be possible, or borderline to keep them unprotected within London but outside of there and inland temperatures can drop below -5C even in the South.

On the other hand, I think they have started growing tropical fruits like mangos and bananas in Sicily.

When I used to eat banana-flavored things (milkshakes, chocolate bars, etc), I always thought that the flavor was artifically inflated and tasted nothing like an actual banana...

...until I went to Fiji. Externally, the appearance of the banana would probably render it as waste in Western countries as it doesn't look nice and yellow - and looks close to what an overripe/rotten banana looks like, but gosh they tasted amazing!

An incredibly dystopian way to minimise human-caused climate change and potential extinction for yet more species.