Winter Bananas Are Here!!

The small, unassuming Winter Banana. Some people wait all year for this delectable . . . apple. Yes, it’s an apple! Why am I telling you this? I don’t know, except to say how delighted I am to live in a world with this incredible variety of fruit, even of one type of fruit.

I grew up in California and apples were not a big deal, frankly. We occasionally picked cherries and strawberries, but for apples, we went to the store for red or green. Sometimes, if we went to Occidental College, in the historic Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, where I grew up, we bought chilled golden delicious apples out of a vending machine! My sister and I thought they were the best. From a vending machine!

Now, in New England, I live five minutes from a farm that has about twenty varieties of apples–including Cortland, Gala, Melrouge, Staybrite, Mutsu, Jonagold, Empire, Braeburn, Arkansas Black, Northern Spy, Carousel, SunCrisp, Newtown Pippin, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, and Rome. And the Winter Banana. It is golden with rouge-colored cheeks. It has a mild taste of . . . you guessed it . . . bananas!

Go get some variety in your life, and your fruit, and settle in to enjoy whatever you choose–with a good book, of course!