CHAPTER 9
A Better Banana
“During this stage you don't talk! There are microbes!”1
Susan Muli's admonishment is followed by 15 minutes of careful cutting as she silently slices the two-foot foundation of a banana plant into a portion of stem tissue the diameter of a silver dollar, pruning away layers of the plant with surgical knives that she sterilizes with a solution of 70 percent ethanol soaked in cotton and wearing a surgical mask to keep pesky contaminating microbes in check. She then separates the tissue further, into tiny bits the size of a fingernail, and places them in a pint jar containing a milky liquid with the consistency of a thin paste. The liquid contains all the nutrients a banana plant needs to thrive. The jar is marked by date ...
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