The banana is magic. And we can demonstrate it in a very rational way. First of all, there are few fruits which, like her, grow directly in a sturdy, easy-open packaging, and seem to have been designed for transport in a satchel or satchel. And then, as food writer Véronique Chapacou explains: “In bananas, it’s a bit like in pork, everything is good! »
In a little yellow book, The banana. Ten ways to prepare it (Les Editions de l’Epure, 2022), she proceeds to an enticing dissection of this giant herb that is the banana tree. The flower can be cooked and has a slight taste of artichoke. The leaf is used for cooking in foil and can give a slight herbaceous flavor to meat, fish or rice. You can even slip a banana peel into the kitchen without risking an accident. “When it’s organic, of course, says Véronique Chapacou. Mixed, the skin gives a soft texture to a cake, for example. I also like to use fruit to sweeten strong-tasting ingredients at any time during the meal. »
To make her recipes, she primarily uses oblong temptations from the West Indies, where there are, she explains, “a know-how, a region, an economy to support”. Despite very aggressive international competition (Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, etc.), production from Guadeloupe and Martinique is still popular and covers around 23% of French needs, according to the Center for International Cooperation in Agricultural Research for Development, which works especially in tropical regions. Especially because West Indian farmers have gone to great lengths to get healthier farms and fruits.
In the town of Lorrain, in the north of Martinique, the Morne Capot farm borders a spectacular jungle: 174 hectares of bamboo, giant ferns, lianas worthy of Tarzan… a hodgepodge of green in which mongooses and iguanas. “Since we removed pesticides, the animals have returned”, smiles Cindy Blondel. His father, Michel Blondel La Rougery, transmitted to him his cultures and the passion for bananas; a pioneer, he is the first farmer to have gone organic in Martinique.
Their banana plantation is planted on the side of a hill, which makes their cultivation a little more complicated. “We had to put in even more products than elsewhere, because the rain was washing it away and taking everything down, recalls Michel Blondel La Rougery. I started to work differently in 2004, without trying to do organic, and then little by little we did without all the inputs. Even our fertilizer comes from a chicken coop we set up. »
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