Herbal bananas
The Reids
fruit. The ones we eat are seedless varieties that only have the seed
"casing" i.e. the bit we eat. But I would have thought thats what a
fruit was, something round a seed to nourish it ?
I thought "herbs" had to be leaves.
The person was a banana grower so **should** be an expert ?
(crossposted food /natural history/gardening as I couldnt decide
which)
Mike Reid
"Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon" Dalai lama
Walking in Spain "http://www.fellwalker.mcmail.com/page65.htm"
Nick Maclaren
In article <39096f18...@news.mcmail.com>, gilla...@mcmail.com (The Reids) writes:
|> Just heard on BBC that the banana is a herb (seed of) and not a
|> fruit. The ones we eat are seedless varieties that only have the seed
|> "casing" i.e. the bit we eat. But I would have thought thats what a
|> fruit was, something round a seed to nourish it ?
|> I thought "herbs" had to be leaves.
|> The person was a banana grower so **should** be an expert ?
|> (crossposted food /natural history/gardening as I couldnt decide
|> which)
It is a herb in the botanic sense, not in the culinary one! It
is a perennial, non-woody plant that produces fruit - other such
plants (though the first grows very differently) are the strawberry
and pineapple.
Herbs in the culinary sense don't have to be used as leaves, though
they often are - think of angelica (stems), horseradish (roots) or
saffron (flowers).
Regards,
Nick Maclaren,
University of Cambridge Computing Service,
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QG, England.
Email: nm...@cam.ac.uk
Tel.: +44 1223 334761 Fax: +44 1223 334679
Rex Bradley
<gilla...@mcmail.com> writes
>Just heard on BBC that the banana is a herb (seed of) and not a
>fruit. The ones we eat are seedless varieties that only have the seed
>"casing" i.e. the bit we eat. But I would have thought thats what a
>fruit was, something round a seed to nourish it ?
>I thought "herbs" had to be leaves.
>The person was a banana grower so **should** be an expert ?
>(crossposted food /natural history/gardening as I couldnt decide
>which)
Well, in Jamaica, we were told the banana is a perennial weed. Each
tree produces one set of "fruit" and then dies back, to produce
another"tree" from its dying roots, then another lot of bananas...
HTH
--
Rex Bradley
Dave Poole
wrote:
>Just heard on BBC that the banana is a herb (seed of) and not a
>fruit. The ones we eat are seedless varieties that only have the seed
>"casing" i.e. the bit we eat. But I would have thought thats what a
>fruit was, something round a seed to nourish it ?
>I thought "herbs" had to be leaves.
All bananas (Musa sp.) are herbaceous perennials - they are not
'trees' nor are they 'herbs' in the culinary sense. However some
foods are cooked in the leaves which help to impart both flavour and
maintain moisture during cooking, so by a long stretch of the
imagination, you could say that the leaves do have a 'herbal'
(culinary) value.
The dessert and cooking bananas (plantains) are generally varieties
that are seedless and are propagated vegetatively from offsets, which
are freely produced. Due to the extremely hard and gritty nature of
banana seeds, a variety that caused you to crack your teeth when
biting into the fruit would not be popular. Those who have
accidentally bitten hard onto an olive 'stone' will know exactly what
I mean.
David Poole
Mary Fisher
Dave Poole <dave-poole@ns_ilsham.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:l87jgs47pk7dngh07...@4ax.com...
I've found this topic fascinating but I'm surprised it hasn't
caused more interest. Perhaps group members, like me, have been
waiting for even more even though unable to contribute themselves
on such an exotic matter.
Thanks anyway!
Mary