Let’s talk about bananas.
Why? Because you simply cannot be a proper tropical boat without that big bunch of bananas hanging off your bimini/boom/shroud. Bananas are the food from heaven and in the tropics they are dirt cheap. For a bunch (once I counted 107 of them!) you will pay 6 USD. Sometimes you will even get them for free or in exchange for a lipstick…
First of all, you will need to build some muscles to carry them around.
One thing you will learn very soon is that these bananas will ripen all at once. One evening you will say:
“Hmmm… they are still too green…” and the next morning you will panic: “Oh, s**t, we have to eat them NOW!!”
Now, how do you eat 107 bananas in one day? You probably can’t, but you can USE all of them, eat some now and save some for later.
Here are some ideas that I developed in those “bananapanic” days:
And of course, the good old…
BANANA PANCAKES !
Then you make some banana bread, a banana cake, you bake a few of them on the BBQ (very good!) and if you have a freezer, you even make banana ice cream (simply smash very ripe bananas and put them in the freezer overnight. You can also add milk/cream/cinnamon/cocoa/coconut milk… be creative!)
At the end of the day you will be exhausted – AND YOU WILL STILL HAVE 62 BANANAS TO GO!!!!
At that point, there is only one thing that can save you:
I seldom recommend any gear, but this is definitely something you should make or buy if you are leaving for the tropics! We love to dry apples, tomatoes, mangoes and papayas too, and it is also possible to make jerky, dry fish or use it for sprouting…
You can make it yourself or find this dryer on Amazon:
There are some islands where fruits are plentiful and cheap, while others where nothing grows. This is why you have to plan ahead. Get the fruit while it is free and stow it away. There are many ways of conserving it. I choose drying because it is fast, simple and safe. Dried fruit is a delicious healthy snack in its own right, but you can also soak dried fruit overnight and use it to make fruit smoothies, yoghurts or pies.
