The view from my grandparents’ front room window looked over the Severn Estuary. On a good day, you could see all the way over to Clevedon and Weston-super-Mare in Somerset. My grandad, Poppa, would often stand there looking out and tell us which boats were coming into the docks at Newport. He’d tell us that the tugs were going out ready to guide a ship in, which more often than not he’d say was a banana boat. Back then I never thought anything of it but these days I wish I’d mined his knowledge more – he’d worked down the docks for many years.
Bananas are prolific in our diet here in the UK and have been for the last 100 years or so. These days our bananas come from all over, but around the turn of the 20th century, many – if not the majority – came from Spain’s Canary Islands. This is in no small part thanks to an enterprising Welshman called Alfred Lewis Jones.
Alfred was born in Carmarthenshire in 1845 and by age 12 was an apprentice to the managers of the African Steamship Company in Liverpool. He rose through the ranks and eventually decided to go it alone, borrowing money for ships of his own. He was successful for many years until he realised that sailing ships were going to be surpassed by steam ships. Together with the Elder Dempster Company, he purchased Oakwood and Garth Merthyr collieries near Maesteg in order to supply good quality steam coal for ships.
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria – the capital city of Gran Canaria – was the last fuelling port before ships sailed over the Atlantic to the Americas. Alfred capitalised on that and shipped his coal on his boats to the city to be one of the main coal suppliers. Ever the canny businessman, Alfred encouraged the Canary Islanders to grow more bananas – which until this point had mainly be used as animal feed on the islands – so that he could bring them back in his ships rather than travelling with an empty cargo. Yeowards were doing a similar thing in Tenerife.
Many of these banana-carrying ships came into the South Quay Import Dock in London. The berth and nearby warehouses were nearly always used by Canary Fruit Lines Limited, and the decision was made to rename the berth after the company and islands. These days it looks a bit different, but we still know it as Canary Wharf.
If you happen to find yourself in Las Palmas, you’ll see many hints at this history: Museo Elder – an interactive science and technology museum is named after and located in an old Elder Dempster warehouse in Parque Santa Catalina. Wander down the road next to it and you’ll be on Calle Alfredo L Jones. Alfred incidentally, went on to become Sir Alfred Lewis Jones KCMG and was the founder of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. You can see a bust of him on the statue outside the Liver Building on Liverpool’s dockside.
When I lived in Las Palmas, I had a shock when catching the bus from one end of the city to another, when I heard two elderly women speaking in Welsh. I said hello and they told me they were on a long-term holiday that they did every year, and that they’d just been to church. They invited me to the Anglican church in the city the next Sunday. The church has been there for more than 100 years and Alfred himself was part of reason the church exists. It still conducts English language services to this day.
If you want to read more about Alfred and the British in the Canary Islands, you might enjoy a piece I wrote back in 2016 for BBC Travel.
The Recipe
Chocolate, rum and banana cake
The Canary Islands are famous for more than just their production of bananas – although I had a fantastic time exploring the banana plantations there last week. Another great product from there is rum. The Arehucas factory in the town of Arucas in the north of Gran Canaria has been making rum from (mostly) locally grown sugar cane since 1884. The ron miel (honey rum) is one of life’s great pleasures. This recipe is a favourite of mine and uses both bananas and rum. If you can get your hands on Canarian bananas, then all the better, as they are smaller but sweeter.
Ingredients (serves 8-12)
120g softened butter or margarine
200g caster sugar
50ml milk
1 tsp lemon juice
3 bananas (or 4 Canarian bananas)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2½ tbsp rum
2 free-range eggs
300g self-raising (all-purpose) flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
Pinch of salt
Handful of chocolate chips (or smashed up leftover Easter eggs)
1 tsp runny honey
Method
Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/350°F/180°C. Grease and line a loaf tin.
In large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
In a jug, mix together the milk and lemon juice and stir – yes, it will start to curdle.
In a separate bowl, mash the bananas together with the vanilla extract and the rum.
Gradually whisk the eggs into the butter and sugar mix, a bit at a time so it doesn’t curdle.
Tip the banana mix and milk into the bowl now, but don’t stir.
Sift the flour, bicarb and salt on top and sprinkle in the chocolate chips.
Gently fold everything together until just combined into a cake mix.
Tip into the prepared tin and cook in centre of the preheated oven for about 45 minutes. Check on it after 30 minutes and if the top is going very brown, cover with foil for the remaining time or until a skewer comes out clean.
Brush the top with the honey and leave to cool.
Cut into thick slices and serve with a cuppa or a good glug of rum.
If you try the recipe out, don’t forget to tag any photos with #mywelshkitchen.
The Playlist
To me, cooking and music go hand in hand, whether that’s singing at the top of your voice using a wooden spoon as a microphone while waiting for pasta to boil, or dancing around with the oven gloves on as the oven timer counts down. Here are this week’s ideas for your Welsh Kitchen playlist.
This issue we’re listening to the glorious tones of Iris Williams who was born in Rhydyfelin. Secondly, we have Dusky Grey, aka Welsh pop duo Catrin and Gethin.
Pererin Wyf by Iris Williams
Told Me by Dusky Grey
The Pantry
Good food is nothing without good ingredients and thankfully there are plenty of fantastic Welsh products on the market. Here is where you’ll find recommendations to stock up your cupboard, fridge or fruit bowl, or a really great place for food.
The Sheriff’s Biltong
This is an interesting one from the lovely people at Cwm Farm in collaboration with Welsh rugby player Ken Owens. This classic South African-style biltong comes in four flavours, honey and mustard (as devised by chef Tomos Parry), chilli, shitake mushroom (as devised by Chris ‘Flamebaster’ Roberts), and laverbread. I love the honey and mustard one, but they are all good, especially as a snack with a beer or a glass of wine, or even as part of a charcuterie board.