The Banana Disease

I love baking (and eating) banana bread. So does my husband, and even my two dogs. The recipe I rely on is the same one my mother used, passed down from her mother. It might go further back, but it's too late to ask. I've shared the recipe at the bottom of this post if you're interested. The secret is to use bananas that have previously been frozen so they turn really brown, and to let the batter sit in the pans for 20 minutes before baking. But that's not really what this blog post is about.

In my book, Guardians of Grace, banana bread becomes a bit of a trading commodity in the small off-grid community where the family finds refuge. It's not just that the bread tastes so good, it's because bananas are hard to come by. Unfortunately, the potential for this to happen isn't fiction. Bananas are at risk.

I've seen several names for the disease attacking banana plants: fusarium wilt, Panama disease, TR4. The cause is a fungus that isn't new, but is spreading rapidly around the globe. According to one article I read, the banana disease was first identified in Taiwan some two decades ago, then spread throughout Asia to the Middle East and Africa before its arrival in Colombia late last year. Colombia is trying to slow the outbreak before it spreads to the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations considers TR4 to be among the most destructive of all plant diseases. 

It spreads stealthily via spores in the soil on boots, plants, machines, or animals. A diseased plant might look healthy for a year while its vascular system is being ravaged. By the time the yellow, wilting leaves appear, it's too late. The soil is contaminated. Since there is no treatment, the only recourse is to abandon the land and move elsewhere. Infected farms are quarantined, and biosecurity measures are put into place to prevent spread. 

For my book, I use Panama disease as yet another subtle warning of climate change, although my research tells me the root cause is greed. As the burgeoning banana industry developed decades ago, a single cultivar was chosen for its consistency in size and taste, and the ease of mass production. The potential to make money superseded any concern that limited genetic diversity could lead to disease susceptibility. 

Of course, scientists and researchers are working hard at developing new varieties of disease-resistant bananas as well as changes to farming methods to address soil health. And so I expect to be baking banana bread for a long time to come.  

Grandma's Banana Bread

I double the recipe for two large loaves:
One to eat and One to freeze

1c Sugar

1/2 c Butter, softened

2 eggs

2 c. flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 mashed ripe bananas

2 T sour milk (either buttermilk, or add a little lemon juice to milk)

Cream the butter and sugar together. Add eggs and blend. Stir in bananas and milk alternately with dry ingredients sifted together. Batter will be very stiff. Pour into greased bread pan. Let stand 20 minutes. Bake 50-60 minutes at 350 degrees.

For additional reading:
https://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/follow-the-food/the-pandemic-threatening-bananas.html
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-05-22/the-25-billion-banana-industry-is-being-ravaged-by-disease.html

Nepeta and Bumblebees

In front of our garage is a large stone planter, about 6’X10’, stuffed full with lovely, fragrant Nepeta (Catmint). In late spring, at the height of flowering, the bumblebees are so numerous that the planter practically vibrates with the humming of little bee wings. I find myself enthralled watching the bees industriously moving from bloom to bloom and plant to plant. The urge to reach out and pet the fuzzy striped bodies is nearly irresistible. They seem completely oblivious to my presence. 

Several years ago, however, the bees weren’t there. Maybe a stray or two, but that was it. Much has been made of the decline of honeybee populations, but surely that couldn’t be the same thing as what was happening to my bumbles. Could it? I wracked my brain trying to remember if I or my husband used any of the 'bad' chemicals lately. And I glared in my neighbor's direction because I just knew he prioritized a big green lawn over a pollinator-friendly habitat.

Around that time, I began to read snippets in the news about a growing mismatch between biological events of pollinators and their favorite host plants. This was referred to as phenological mismatch. (See definition below). The general hypothesis is that climate change is contributing to this phenomenon, and related scientific research is being conducted worldwide.

The main theory is that the plant, like my Nepeta, uses mean daily temperature as its phenological cue to break dormancy and flower, while the pollinator, like my bumbles, uses day length. If these two species depend on their interaction with one another for pollination and food, the changing environment means they may end up missing each other entirely. Of course, an occasional occurrence of early spring isn’t going to decimate bumblebees. But if this is a permanent shift….

Because I love my garden and the birds, butterflies, and bees that occupy it, I worry. I worry enough that I included a reference to phenological mismatch early in my book, Guardians of Grace, as one of the subtle clues of climate chaos to come.

Of course, my characters don’t know this. They, like me, are just wondering why the Nepeta is blooming so early, and why the bumblebees are missing out on the nectar.

According to a quick internet search, Phenology is the study of the timing of the biological events in plants and animals such as flowering, leafing, hibernation, reproduction, and migration. Scientists who study phenology are interested in the timing of such biological events in relation to changes in season and climate.