The Banana And Its Many Uses

Over the years Thais have developed many other useful purposes for different parts of the banana tree.

One choice gift that Mother Nature has created for us is the banana. What the true value of this gift has for us depends, however, on the ways we can find the most uses for it. There are many kinds of bananas in Thailand, with various types flourishing in different environmental conditions. There are wild bananas that prefer narrow valleys in the mountains. These are not widely eaten because the fruit is full of hard seeds, but the leaves are useful. The kluay lep mue nang are a kind of wild banana that grows in rocky crevices where the soil covering is not thick. The fruit are small but compensate for it with their fine fragrance and sweetness, plus they don’t have seeds. The province where they are most common is in Chumphon. Kluay khai, or “egg bananas”, grow best where the temperature is somewhat hot, like in Kamphaeng Phet, for example. They are small and short with a flavour all in their own. Kluay hom grow best in the Central region.

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