The Story of the Banana: The Perfect Fruit

Bananas are the perfect fruit in many ways. They are cheap, they are easy to peel, they are easy to digest, they taste great, they're nutritious, and if they get too old, you can make banana bread. There's not much bad to say about bananas.

Although apples and oranges may be more widely used in various forms from fruit to pie to juice, bananas are generally eaten fresh and that makes them likely the most eaten fruit. The average American consumes about 26 pounds of bananas a year.

Bananas not only have useful nutrients and minerals like potassium and iron and vitamins such as B6, C and A , they posses no cholesterol and practically no fat.

Highlights of Banana History

At one time they were an expensive delicacy.

Bananas are found throughout the tropics and may have originated in Malaysia. Alexander the Great encountered bananas in India and reportedly brought them back to the West.

The banana reached the New World in 1516 with landfall at Santo Domingo, where Franciscan priest Tomas de Berlanga introduced the fruit which thrived in central America.

In the 1690's, the Puritans got a chance to sample bananas which they boiled and ate, still in their skins. They hated them. Imagine that.

The real introduction to North America was at the 1876 Centrennial Exposition in Phildealphia, where bananas wrapped in tin foil were offered at 10 cents each. Bananas were a hit. In 1899, the United Fruit Company began importing bananas from tropical plantations using the new refrigerated ships.

This'll Drive You Bananas

A banana is a banana, right? Actually, they are more than 100 varieties of banana such as the Gros Michael and Cavendish, among the most common. More commonly, they are divided into two groups, dessert bananas and green cooking bananas.

There are no seeds in bananas because the yellow banana variety from the store that we are today familiar with comes from a sterile hybrid, created by crossing two banana varieties.

The banana tree is not really a tree despite it's appearance. It is actually a giant herb as indicated by the fact that instead of wood, the tree's trunk consists of thick, layered leaves.

Banana trees grow a single crop in their lifetime, but the rootstock from a single plant can produce many banana trees.

Bananas grow in clusters or bunches, commonly called hands, of up to 20 pieces of fruit. Workers cover the hands with plastci bags once the fruit appears to protect from insects as well as from the cutting edges of sharp palm trees.

Picked while green, the banana hands, which grow upside down, are cleaned, cut into smaller bunches, boxed, and shipped. At their destination, they are put in ripening rooms and when they turn golden yellow, its off to the store. At the time of purchase, they are ideally still a little unfinished and they final ripening at home at standard room temperature.

Before Banana Daiquiris, There Was Banana Water

Survival experts know that you can cut the banana plant off at the trunk, hollow out the center, and it will fill with drinkable water over the next few days.

Once bananas are ripe, you can refrigerate. Even if the skin starts to turn brown, the fruit inside is still good.

Just, whatever you do, try not to slip on any banana peels.

References:

Wikipedia, "Banana" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana

Banana, http://bananasweb.com/