Bananas
Posted by Clark Bunch on May 7, 2012
One of the things I enjoy is reading Wikipedia. I don’t edit Wikipedia, and am naturally suspect of any information from the Internet. But it is interesting.
I just read a long entry on Bananas. I knew that bananas were picked green and ripened at their destination. That bright yellow supermarket color comes from the artificial ripening process; without being gassed with ethylene bananas picked green would never ripen but would rot first.
- I learned that you can speed up ripening at home by placing bananas overnight in a brown paper bag with either an apple or tomato.
- I also learned that bananas are refrigerated for shipment at 59 degrees Fahrenheit, cool enough to preserve them for weeks but not as cold as your home refrigerator (39 or 40 degrees) which causes the peels to turn black. BTW, the fruit inside is still fine even when that happens.
- Finally, there is no such thing as a banana tree. Bananas grow on the world’s largest herbaceous plant.
I found those facts particularly interesting. I recommending clicking over to Wiki/bananas for much, much more.
Clark Bunch said
One of the “likes” above is from The Ranting Chef. I clicked over and the first thing I saw was a recipe for grilled zucchini and squash. Check it out: http://rantingchef.com/2012/05/06/quick-grilled-zucchini-and-squash/