Basque Country banana republic
- I know two friends who have never eaten a banana, a self. But people are in favour of separation. Banana is a genus of plants originated in Africa and Asia (Musa x paradisiaca), but today in America it is also done a lot. The largest producer is India and the main exporter is Ecuador. Here people are dressed in bananas, the Spanish average is 13 kilos per inhabitant per year, the French one is about eight kilos and the European one is about ten kilos per year.
I guess you'll eat more soon. In Elgoibar, the New Year’s Eve market is held on the last Saturday of the year, and in the last one, bananas produced in Bizkaia have appeared.
Intimidated by the harsh climate, Bizkaia is the most tropical territory in the Basque Country, with less rainfall than in the east, but with a warmer temperature. And if in Bizkaia there are singular places, paradises; we more for plants than for animals: Armintza, Plentzia, Bakio, Bedaroa, Natxitua and so on. From this long branch is Ispasterko Kurtziaga-Arropain. There is the farmhouse Iparragirre, where Igor Lete Urriolabeitia produces vegetables and fruits named Ortua de Iparragirre. For years now, I have seen its production increasing at trade fairs. Years ago, thanks to my bad memory, I don't remember in which village, but I think it was in the village of Santaluzieta de Urretxu-Zumarraga: I bought him a tree tomato plant. The Solanum betaceum plant is also called tamaryl. I had never seen him in the Basque Country and he offered himself in trade. He didn't give me the floor immediately, he started to ask me where I would live, and he didn't give it to me until I explained to him that in our house he would have a little direct effect on the sea. Today he lives very well in front of our door and gives a lot of special tomato.
Eskerrik asko, Igor. Do not hesitate to go to see your Point of Sale when you can. The variety of vegetables and fruits it offers is impressive. You will see for the first time many of them, at least produced in the Basque Country: Chichi (Litchi chinensis), guava (Psidium guajava), maracuia (Passiflora edulis), lulo or naranjil (Solanum quitoense), etc. Others that he himself has put up for some time are now common in our territory: Aguacateo (Persea americana), fisalisa (Physalis peruviana), etc. It is also spectacular how it presents the selection of goods: by colors, drawings, ikurriñas, flags, lauburus, etc. He's an advanced farmer who produces ecologically, with quality but also health, and that's what he offers us to customers.
It was Igor's first bananas in the Basque Country to be sold at the Elgoibar trade show. And Igor will continue to clean the way for all of us and build dreams about which in the future will be our orchards, fields and fruit, from reality. For example, I think he has already planted the pitai in some corner (Stenocereus spp.) some specimens. Show for the coming years!
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