This picture dates back to November 1988, just six months after we moved to Kaaawa.

We had inherited a patch of wonderful apple banana plants from the previous owner, Leslie Fullard-Leo. We regularly harvested beautiful bunches of bananas like these for the next decade, before the dreaded bunchy top finally reached Kaaawa and wiped out all of our plants within a year or two.

It wasn’t until just seven years ago or so that we were able to get new banana plants to thrive. We passed those on to the family that bought the house from us back in 2015.