Maybe I am just being paranoid, you know, reading all about the GMO food and the weird experiments the big food companies are doing with the stuff we eat… but I swear, bananas do not get ripe the way they used to.
Sometimes they seem to go from green to yellow too fast. Sometimes it seems like the outside is still green but the inside is getting all mushy. There is just something different about them. And I don’t like it.
Keep your filthy paws off my banana, you damn, dirty humans.
Pouring My Art Out 
Tips for bananas: Bananas are packed while still green so they arrive in our countries closer to maturation. Just before bananas are delivered to the store there is a chemical sprayed into the box to speed up ripening. If you don’t want your bananas to keep ripening make sure you remove them from any packaging. Store bananas in a cool place to keep them from over-ripening too quickly. If you want your bananas to get mushy fast (for banana bread) put them in the freezer until the skin is black & thin.
I just felt like venting…
My bananas which are smaller than your, I am sure, ripen way too fast! They say to separate them so they don’t turn black fast but even that is not working. Banana envy…
I guess we should just be glad that you can buy a banana at any time of the year almost anywhere in the country. That is pretty freaky.
it’s too hot out – anytime the bananas get over 62 F their ripening accelerates. This time of year they are in stores or backrooms waiting or even on your kitchen counter at temps higher than 62. Store them in the coolest place you can find that is not below 58 and the ripening will slow.
who has a place like that?
Well, some people have cold rooms and the bananas can be brought out a few at a time. Or keep them down low out of the sun. The cooler they are the longer they last – as long as they do not go below 58F.
people have special banana rooms???
Actually some houses here have “cold rooms”. They are uninsulated rooms below ground level used to store vegetables and canned goods and such. The temperature below the frost line is always in the high fifties and these rooms were used for vegetable storage in the winter years ago so they would survive storage over winter without freezing and going bad. They probably don’t exist in your warm neck of the woods.
That is interesting to know
It’s finally happened then. It was in one of Nostradamus predictions that the advent of weirdly ripening bananas would signal the end of the world.
Yes, I know what you mean. I buy my bananas when they are green and within a day or two they have not only turned yellow, but they start getting brown spots all over them. I hate bananas with brown spots. I even wrote a post about my hatred for brown-spotted bananas. http://mindfuldigressions.com/2014/05/09/going-green/
But the thing is…and as you always say, there always has to be a thing, right? The thing is that I only buy organic bananas. So I’m wondering if a banana can be both organic and genetically modified. What do you think, PMAO? Can a banana be both organic and GMO?
Can a banana be orgasmic?
I don’t know. Let me ask my wife.
okay…
And if you ever tell her I said that…well, all I can say is look out for a flying Chicago deep dish pizza delivered by drone.
My lips are sealed
😀 You are awesome for some smiles.
thank you… for laughing at my banana…
Yeah, it’s not the banana – it’s the ripening. I used to haul bananas – we picked them up at Pier 42 in Manhattan and in Albnay (Chiquita and Dole) , both off ships from South America. We hauled them east into Canada, as far as Newfoundland. They are tricky. We picked them up green, but they could be at various stages of ripening. Our job was to haul them between 58 and 62 degrees F. below 58 they would go green to mushy to black after delivery. Above 62 they would go from green to yellow to mushy after delivery – and fast, within 2 days. When they arrive at the wholesaler, they have huge rooms where they stack the boxes and they control temp and a gas called ethylene. Bananas give off ethylene naturally in order to ripen. The quantity of ethylene determines the speed of ripienng. The higher the temp , the more ethylene. That is why many banana boxes have holes in the side – for gas circulation. The banana producers have done a lot of research and know exactly what level of ripening sells best. The wholesalers try to ripen the bananas so they are the right color when sold, but demand often foils them. It is a long supply chain. If bananas are on sale, then many are sold and green bananas have to be released to stores to keep product on the shelf. If the prices then go up, sales slow and banans pile up and will overripen before they hit the shelf.
If you change where you store your bananas at home, it will also affect the ripening. If they drop below 58 (i.e. someone puts them in the fridge), it kills the banana and stops ethylene production and the banana will go green to mush to black. if you store them where there is a breeze that carries away the gas, they will take longer to ripen. Oh, that gas? It plays havoc with many other vegetables, so don’t store, apples, lettuce, yams, or other fruit around bananas, the gas will turn them brown and rotten.\
Anyway, that’s a banana ripening primer. Hope ya’ll enjoyed it! 😀
Is there anything you haven’t hauled in that crazy truck of yours? Frozen fish, bananas, the list goes on and on… now I have to ask, were you hauling bananas from Dildo?
No, but I’ve hauled bananas that went to Dildo. I’m not sure what they were used for – perhaps there was a shortage and they covered it. Possibly. But you would be surprised at some of the wild and wooly stuff that goes by truck. I hauled a submarine once – a little one that is used by offshore jack-up drill rigs to set their legs. I hauled fishing dragger doors from Nfld to a fisherman in Maine. I once pout a whole load of frozen cod – 50,000 pounds – into the basement of a private home. Ha! That wasn’t you by any chance, was it? There are some funny storeis. Hey, if you want to read one where I’m caught with my pants down under a mountain check this out (just posted today) http://cordeliasmomstill.com/2014/10/02/black-hole-guest-post-by-paul-curran/comment-page-1/#comment-4980 Ha!
I have no words…