It's interesting to get to know about bananas grown in our country. I just came across a piece of information, Saging Mondo Banana, posted in a website Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, The article talks about saging mondo banana, its use and food value, and unique characteristics compared to the other four varieties mentioned, including Saba or Cardaba, Lacatan, Latundan, and Bungulan. Here's the information/article cut-and-pasted from https://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/ark-of-taste-slow-food/saging-mondo-banana/:
Saging Mondo Banana
There are four main types of bananas grown widely in the Philippines: Lacatan, Latundan, Bungulan and the small Saba or Cardaba variety. The saging mondo banana is a variety of Saba or Cardaba banana widely grown on the Visayan Islands, particularly in the province of Cebu. Saging mondo is a dwarf Saba variety. The plants’ psuedostems grow just 2.5-3.5 meters tall. Unlike the common Saba bananas with fruits measuring 12-15 cm long and 5 cm in diameter, saging mondo bananas measure 5-8 cm long and 2.5 cm in diameter. The plants also take longer to fruit, 11-12 months versus 5-6 months for other Saba varieties. Also differing from the angular shape of Saba bananas, saging mondo bananas are much rounder. The saging mondo banana has a thick skin that turns yellow when ripe, and a yellow-orange flesh that is solid and chewy in consistency. It is ideal eaten simply boiled, often dipped in salted or fermented fish with a dash of lemon juice. The banana can act as a substitute for corn or rice in other dishes. One local preparation is called minatamis, and infvolves boiling the peeled bananas and preserving it them in a raw sugar syrup (latik). The fruit can also be made into banana ketchup or be used in a sweet stew called binignit or in halo-halo, a mixture of fruits, yam, tapioca (or landang) and milk or coconut milk. The dark red banana flower (puso sa saging) is also edible, often served simply boiled and seasoned as a side for fish, pork or beef. The waxy banana leaves can also be used to wrap traditional dishes such as bodbod (sticky rice), bibingka (rice cake) and kiseo (white cheese). Saging Mondo is widely grown in the Visayas particularly in the hilly lands of Argao, Dalaguete and Ronda in the south. They grow best in well-drained fertile soils with full sun exposure. They are tolerant of dry soil and colder conditions of temperate climate. They require minimum rainfall and can survive a long dry season. Unlike the larger Saba, which are grown in corporate farms, the Saging Mondo variety are grown in backyard farms because of its limited yield and late maturing; there is no mass production of this variety. Farmers prefer to grow the larger Saba bananas, which give them more, produce (300 fruits per tree versus 60-70 for saging mondo) and can be sold at higher prices because of their size. Additionally, the local marketing system of the community is beset with a lot of problems including high perishability of the fruit, limited size of immediate local market and the manipulation of traders. Furthermore, in 2013 the Philippines experienced a calamity brought about by Typhoon Yolanda, which badly hit the Visayan area and destroyed the agricultural farms and the plantations, including banana trees. Now, farmers would rather replant the variety which will give them bigger produce and shorter waiting time before the harvest. After some time, the saging mondo might just disappear from the farmers’ land.oOo
My thanks to SFFB for this information about saging mondo. I will try to post here some pictures of saging mondo and the other "minor" varieties, which have now become endemic and difficult to find. I considered mondo a very rare fruit, along with saging tindok, saging amo, bungulan, etc. In recent years, the advances in technology, cash crops orientation, GMO, and agribusiness, changed the orientation and sense or purpose of many a Filipino farmer. Apart from the issue of landlessness and lack of government support, many a poor farmer have become less and less interested in propagating and growing native varieties, like saging mondo and saba, which are generally slow growing, albeit magnificently resistant to diseases. Instead, they switched orientation to grow "cash bananas" not primarily for their consumption but to increase income. Some have become growers or sold their farm lots or become contractual workers of their own land of big foreign companies that established banana plantations for export. Binangay or cavendish are examples of these crops. Some farmers would harvest their crops (cardaba especially) even before they get mature (in 11 months?) and sell them to factories that make banana chips, again, for Japan, Europe, and elsewhere. In downtown Davao in Mindanao, many sidewalk vendors and carenderia store owners keep the so-called "underground economy" healthy by selling saging cardaba (ripened) either as boiled, toron (flour-wrapped), or deep-fried ("fan-style"). During the mid-morning or mid-afternoon breaks, pritong (deep-fried) saging, which comes either in "fan-style" or banana-kyu is making a fast "hit." That's why enterprising vendors put up their display rolling stores and makeshift structures strategically near schools, churches, construction sites, government offices, and "branded" commercial establishments where students, workers, and professionals normally pass by. Most of those who venture in this type of "small-time business" feel satisfied and cannot just simply quit (like an addiction) when paper bills or silver coins start clanging in their money side bag -- albeit this sort of activity uses up a lot of time and energy in the process. A friend, a father of four, said he quit as a trisikel driver to help his wife in their side street chicken "scraps" food business, selling deep-fat fried isol (chicken tail bone), tinai (intestines), ulo at liig (head and necks), and tiil (legs) locally called adidas, and, of course, pritong saging. The couple nets something like Php1,500 daily, quite enough to make ends meet.
