WE all know it’s been sweltering - but the heatwave may have given a potassium-powered banana boost to a local gardener and placed Abergavenny alongside Costa Rica and Ecuador as an exotic fruit producing centre writes BOB ROGERS.

It’s not known whether gardener, Patricia Ford, had to work all night on a drink of rum to achieve her growing success but the one small plant she bought eight years ago at Cornwall’s Eden Project has developed into eight flowering plants, with two hands of bananas so far.

Patricia, of Commercial Street, asks, ‘Is this a first for Abergavenny?’ If so, she could be on to a winner as bananas are the most popular fruit in the world with more than 100 billion eaten every year, - 51 per cent at breakfast time.

They contain only 95 calories with no fat, cholesterol or sodium and the inside of the skin can be used to sooth insect bites and also to shine shoes.