Copyright © 2006 Farming and Countryside Education Look Windwards! A Question of Bananas Adapted from `the nine number picture board’ on: http://www.sln.org.uk/geography/visual.htm Copyright © 2006 Farming and Countryside Education

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Click on a number for a question about bananas! Click on the banana to bring you back to this page. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Adapted from `the nine number picture board’ on: http://www.sln.org.uk/geography/visual.htm

Which of these bananas is good to eat? A, B or both? Click for the answer. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Answer 1. A and B are both good. The green bananas in A are not yet ripe enough to eat, but after a few weeks ripening they should taste just fine. The bananas may look bad, but those are only small marks on the skin. They make no difference to the inside of the bananas. Very few people in the UK know this. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

2.What is the banana plant? A) A tree B) A herb C) A vegetable Click for the answer. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Answer 2. It’s a herb. The banana plant is a giant perennial herb which produces the fruit we eat. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

3. Which region produces the most Fairtrade bananas for the UK? Click for the answer. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Answer 3. The Windward Isles. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

4.What are the blue bags used for? Click for the answer. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Answer 4. The blue bags are to protect the fruit as it grows on the banana plant. The plastic has pesticides in it which help reduce the amount of fruit lost in the fields. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

5. What is this? Click for the answer. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Answer 5. It is a ‘banana flower’. As it opens, it reveals rows of flowers. With cultivated bananas, each flower develops into a banana without needing to be pollinated. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

6. What form of transport is used to bring the Bananas to the UK market? Click for the answer. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Answer 6. By ship It takes about 2 weeks for the bananas to be loaded on to the ship and reach the UK 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

7. Are these bananas? Click for the answer. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Answer 7. Yes. These are red bananas. When peeled they look like yellow bananas. Some people think they taste sweeter than the yellow ones. This might be the start of ‘designer’ bananas. Maybe we will have lots of different types to buy in the future. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

8. Bananas are the only crop grown in the Windward Islands True or False? Click for the answer. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Answer 8. False. Many other tropical crops are grown e.g. Mangoes, Coconuts and Plantain. Bananas are very important. For example in St Lucia they represent 58 % of all exports (Source Macmillan Caribbean Atlas) Other islands are less reliant on bananas but they are still make up around a quarter of export money in Dominica and St Vincent. Exports from St Lucia 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

9. What are these? Click for the answer. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Answer 9. The jar on the left is Banana Jam which tastes good. The bottle on the right is Banana Ketchup. It can be used on your chips.. Or can be used to add flavour to food. Yummy. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9