Banana Products
This is one of the most venerable fruits known to man with a long history of cultivation throughout the world. Indigo Herbs has, as a salute to this super nourishing fruit, a very high quality Organic Raw Banana Powder. This powder is a super modern alternative which will keep longer but still has all the same amazing benefits of fresh Banana. Slow dried and finely milled, this powder will be a great addition to any smoothie at any time of the year. We are also delighted to be stocking Organic Banana Chips, a fantastic ingredient for baking and making!
The origins of the humble Banana are thought to be a bit of mystery. The first known region to have cultivated the fruit was in the Kuk valley in New Guinea around 8,000 BCE. There may have been other cultures who cultivated the banana but lost the fruit through drought or maybe disease. It is thought that the Banana then spread to the Philippine Islands and then India within the first two millennia. There exists within Buddhist literature mention of Bananas around 600 BCE and Alexander the Great found Bananas in India in 327 BCE. Another anomaly in the history of the Banana is that the fruit could have arrived in South America before the first Europeans in 200 BCE.
After the eventual spread of the Banana throughout the world it became an important crop for colonial plantations. The Banana trees were used to shade the more important crops of cacao, peppers and coffee. These three crops rely on intermittent periods of sunlight which were provided by the wide fan leaves of the Banana tree. Also the Banana wasn’t so labour intensive to and required less care to grow.
There are many different varieties of Banana which have been produced in order to provide Bananas for the mass market. Today, the most popular Banana variety is Cavendish because of its resistance to Panama disease. All bananas come from two main wild varieties, Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana and have varying lengths but the same wide long green vibrant fan leaves. Fruits grow in bunches that usually hang from the top of the main trunk while flowers disperse from the bottom of the fruit bunch.
