Hey all!

I took a trip down to Homestead, Fl for spring back to do some volunteer work at the Everglades Outpost. I made my goal to drag everyone along to Going-Bananas (www.going-bananas.com) so that I could have a look around and pick up a new banana

So... we got there, and it was fantastic! Katie showed us all around the property, and even let me buy one of her smaller (6" pot) plants to make it easier to fit in the car for the drive home! But that's not all, oh no... as she was showing us around and letting me have a chance to think about which variety I might want, she introduced us to what she called the Everglades Tomato (a cherry tomato of sorts, quite tasty). She then picked up two pots with freshly planted tomatoes and handed them to me... take them home and grow some Florida tomatoes she says!

But there's more, we continued walking, and she showed us some of her Daturas... many of them had lots of nice seed pods, so she bagged a couple handfulls up and gave me those as well.

Then we walked past a few coconuts which had sprouted, she uprooted one from the ground, put it in a bag, and sent that home with me as well.

Finally we got back to the bananas! and I decided to pick up a Raja Puri for myself. We headed back toward her house, and I noticed that she had picked up a Goldfinger banana in a 6" pot as we were walking back. When we arrived at the house, she set the Goldfinger next to my Raja Puri and said "why don't you take that one as well, just to experiment a little!".

So... I walked out of there with 2 bananas, 2 everglades tomatoes, a number of Datura seeds, a sprouted coconut, and a 45 minute tour of her place.... and she charged me for only the one Raja Puri... $9.00! What a deal! I picked up a 10 lb bag of her fertilizer as well (another $5.00), and tacked on a small tip just for good measure. But to get out of there with all of those things for under $20.00?? that's insane!!! My friends who I dragged along even said that they had a great time, which was a nice little bonus

Anyways, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. For anyone interested in picking up some bananas, I'd highly recommend Going-Bananas, my experience with them was super Top Notch.

I'll try to get some pictures up soon, left my camera at mother's though, so it may be a little while.

Alright, that's it, over and out

~Derek

Hi Derek, Rajapuri is a great banana, and if you have not grown bananas before, it is a good variety to start with. Rajapuri is nearly fool proof. A nice point about them is that the leaves are wind resistnt so they don't get all torn up and raggy looking. Rajapuri is also some what resistant to the cold. HOWEVER, about Daturas, they are EXTREMELY invasive. In many areas it has become illegal to plant them. I planted one inside my greenhouse three years ago, and I am to this day still cutting out wild Daturas plants. The seed goes every where. In one of my outside flower beds, I have removed hundreads of plants over the last couple of seasons. The seed pot has gobs and gobs of seeds inside them. Derek, it is nice to see you here again, how is school going? The Everglades sounds exciting. I read that the Everglades are in trouble from Florida's NUMBER ONE PROBLEM - people building houses on every square inch of soil that is left, andthen robbing the park of it water. Time for Jeb Bush to do something. - Millet

School is moving along... I'll be graduating this term with my Bachelors! and then going back in the Fall to start the Masters program (assuming I get accepted!).

The Raja Puri and Goldfinger represent my second and third bananas... the first one was a gracious gift from Dale, a SDC that has been thriving in my living room (believe it or not). I'm a little afraid that the SDC is showing some early early symptoms of Bunchy Top Virus, though, having no experience with it other than pictures I've seen online, it's difficult to tell.

I'll be careful with the Daturas... they will certainly stay in pots, and I'll be sure to keep them far enough away from other pots so as not to spread them around Thanks for the tip!

The Everglades certainly are incredible, and it's a shame that they are being paved over in the name of expansion. At least I got to drive an air boat while I was down there (which I HIGHLY suggest to anyone... what a rush!). Perhaps we'll have to start working towards slowing the paving of paradise if you will... a project for next spring break

~Derek

One thing that is certain, and that is that DEVELOPERS are no friend of the Everglades. Jeb Bush, Florida's governor, made his millions as a developer in Florida before he ran for office. There is a good article in the current issue of the "Smithsonian" magazine on the hopeful reclaiming of what's left of the Everglades. - Millet