A few times a year I chat with a cousin in Holland. He’s my age and I’ve known him since we were kids in Holland. He’s a contractor – builds mostly barns. He has never been to Canada but seems to know Canada quite well. Whenever we talk he tells me what the weather has been like in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver. Weather interests him. We are alike in that way. He also gives me a run down on the weather and happenings in Holland and other European countries. That always interests me.
We mostly converse in Dutch with some English words thrown in. I enjoy speaking my mother tongue.
He said the climate in Italy and along the Mediterranean has been hotter than usual these past 10 years, making it possible for olive growers to grow bananas. It has really caught on in Italy. The bananas from Italy are smaller but they don’t go black when over-ripe. The taste is much better than the bananas grown in Costa Rica, Ecuador and Columbia because they aren’t picked when they’re green. They can be in Dutch stores two days after they are picked. Dutch consumers love them. The Italians have planted nearly a million banana trees and small countries like Holland and Belgium get about 70 per cent of their bananas from Italy. Greece and Spain are now also growing bananas, but on a smaller scale. They are experimenting with trying to grow oranges and grapefruits. Early results, according to my cousin, are quite favourable.
He says the Green folks love it. No fossil fuels wasted shipping them across the ocean. They are being shipped by high-speed trains that run very efficiently. He laughs and in Dutch says, “Those Greens are tickled pink.”
Scotland and Wales are hoping to get the Mediterranean bananas next year when the newly planted banana trees come on stream. He thinks we’ll see the Spanish bananas in Canadian supermarkets by the end of the summer.
We chatted about “Huntigowk Day” that is celebrated in some European countries this month. Actually, it’s tomorrow. It’s a fun day for adults—mischievous adults. Bosses and managers send new workers (apprentices) to “hunt the gowk another mile” – a wild goose chase. It’s a popular prank in Holland. My parents told me stories of farmers who would ask their young help to go to a neighbour and get a certain tool that the farmer needed. Of course, there was no such tool. The neighbour would play along and tell the boy that he lent it to a neighbour down the road. The lad would knock on that door and inquire and he’d be sent to another farmer and so it would go until he finally caught on that he was the target of a prank.
Did you fall for the banana story? Tomorrow is April Fools Day. Back to honest news next week.
