Where the bananas are grown commercially here, they put blue plastic bags over the stems of bananas so that the ripening process will be even. Otherwise the ones on the sun side of the stem would ripen faster than the others, and they want to harvest the whole stem at once.
The blue plastic bags are perforated and so allow air flow and insects etc. through. These banana plantations are north east of here on the way to the north Carribbean Coast.
I liked the rusty old Rail Road sign in front of this one.
They cut the stems of bananas and hang them on a conveyor belt that whisks them in from the plantation to the packing plant. Notice the brown leather dividers between the bunches of bananas on the stem. They are to give them some cushion on their journey. You can also see the perforations in the blue plastic bags.
This guy was pulling off the bags and taking out the dividers.
Here he is carrying away a bunch of the dividers. They sent the dividers back to the fields in large brown bags also on the conveyor.
These bananas look pretty good!
These men are starting to cut the bunches of bananas off the big stems. Their cutting implements were blades on the end of a long bar so they just had to push down to cut off the bunches of bananas.
More stems of bananas ready to cut up.
You can see their tools for cutting and some of the bananas have been cut off.
They are then all put in these big tubs of water to be washed. The less than perfect ones are culled out and put in the back of a big truck that you can just barely see at the back on the right side. These are sent to a baby food factory.
The acceptable bunches are laid out in big black plastic trays on the other side of the washing tubs, and bagged.
These Del Monte bags look just like the ones we buy at Costco! There were also other well known brand plantations such as Chiquita and Dole. The plantations where the bananas are grown were named Carmen I, Carmen II, etc. The guide said the name was for Carmen Miranda who used the be the spokeswoman for the Chiquita banana company. Becky, remember the Carmen Miranda costumes I made for that number you were in when you were in the Junior High Show?
Where the bananas are grown commercially here, they put blue plastic bags over the stems of bananas so that the ripening process will be even. Otherwise the ones on the sun side of the stem would ripen faster than the others, and they want to harvest the whole stem at once.
The blue plastic bags are perforated and so allow air flow and insects etc. through. These banana plantations are north east of here on the way to the north Carribbean Coast.
I liked the rusty old Rail Road sign in front of this one.
They cut the stems of bananas and hang them on a conveyor belt that whisks them in from the plantation to the packing plant. Notice the brown leather dividers between the bunches of bananas on the stem. They are to give them some cushion on their journey. You can also see the perforations in the blue plastic bags.
This guy was pulling off the bags and taking out the dividers.
Here he is carrying away a bunch of the dividers. They sent the dividers back to the fields in large brown bags also on the conveyor.
These bananas look pretty good!
These men are starting to cut the bunches of bananas off the big stems. Their cutting implements were blades on the end of a long bar so they just had to push down to cut off the bunches of bananas.
More stems of bananas ready to cut up.
You can see their tools for cutting and some of the bananas have been cut off.
They are then all put in these big tubs of water to be washed. The less than perfect ones are culled out and put in the back of a big truck that you can just barely see at the back on the right side. These are sent to a baby food factory.
The acceptable bunches are laid out in big black plastic trays on the other side of the washing tubs, and bagged.
These Del Monte bags look just like the ones we buy at Costco! There were also other well known brand plantations such as Chiquita and Dole. The plantations where the bananas are grown were named Carmen I, Carmen II, etc. The guide said the name was for Carmen Miranda who used the be the spokeswoman for the Chiquita banana company. Becky, remember the Carmen Miranda costumes I made for that number you were in when you were in the Junior High Show?
1 comment:
I remember those costumes!
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