Where have all the minimos gone??

Since we returned from the States, it has been difficult to find mínimos here in Danlí. (Mínimos are bananas that grow wild in the mountains here. See pic below of ones that aren´t ripe yet. They are sweeter and smaller than the imported bananas we get in the States). Anyway, this was very disconcerting because generally mínimos are one of the few fruits that can be found year round in abundance at the market and pulperías (small family-run stores you’ll find on every block). So last week I asked a Honduran that I’d worked with several times on Agua Pura (Pure Water) projects why there are no mínimos. The explanation I got was interesting and I believe worth sharing with you all.

At the beginning of December, coffee picking season started. The harvest lasts through February, sometimes into March. Everyone in a coffee-picking community is expected to help pick and many people from outside the community go to help pick and make a few lempiras. So the explanation I got was that the coffee pickers are being fed/eating all the mínimos in the mountains and there are none left to be delivered to Danlí. I’m also assuming that the guy who usually drives down the mountain with a truck full of mínimos to sell at the market in Danlí is either picking coffee or managing his coffee pickers. Anyway, I got the explanation I needed (for awhile I was worried that perhaps there was a mínimo shortage or that some disease had plagued the mínimo trees) and will have to settle on eating the export bananas I find at the grocery store until March.