Samoan bananas
Well, life has been busy. Dennis has started the building structure to house the new toilet, shower, water pump, and garden things. It is right beside the septic tank – and close to where our eventual accommodation will be, but still quite a way from our tent!
I am busy writing the words for the Samoa Story website, to go with the 20,000 or so photos we have taken over the last 18 months. It is an on-going project and is intended as a useful online resource promoting ‘All things Samoan’.
After such a fantastic start to my garden, I have to admit that I could have lost all the tomato plants to some fungal disease, if Dennis hadn’t noticed it and had me act quickly. I have had to break off nearly half the leaves, as they started to yellow and get spots. Hopefully, the many tomatoes that are there will still ripen and keep us in good supply. I also lost my spinach and silverbeet to some unknown black slime on the leaves that ate them away. Tropical heat? Lack of water? I don’t know, having never been much of a gardener before anyway!
I still have a crop of sweetcorn ripening, and the carrots seem to be growing slowly. We have had a great supply of bananas from our land – all different sorts – short, stubby, sweet Amasi bananas, palagi (my favourite) and princess bananas (those little ones that look like a tiara as they splay out when they grow). And my favourites – the paw paw – have been ripening a bit slower than I can eat them!!! But we did learn how to use the green paw paw as a stir fry vegetable, and they are lovely – taste and look a bit like a light squash/pumpkin.
Manuia to all (Cheers)