FoodFood InformationFruitTropical
The wild banana, believed to have originated in Southeast Asia, is now
cultivated in all the tropical areas of the world that have ideal conditions:
warmth (never below 50 F), high humidity, ample and steady rainfall, and
loose, well-drained soil. The areas that best meet these requirements are
found in Central America. The top banana-producing countries of the world
are Costa Rica, Honduras, Ecuador, and Panama. Except for a very small crop
grown in Hawaii, bananas are not grown commercially in the United States.
The banana is a most unusual fruit, akin to no other. It is actually the
berry of a giant, bee like herb. It grows on stalks that bear about seven
to twelve hands of bananas. Each hand is made up of about twelve to fourteen
bananas. A bunch, consisting of seven to twelve hands and up to a couple
of hundred bananas, can weigh from fifty to one hundred pounds.
Unless you were born before the mid-1950s, you have probably never seen
a bunch of bananas, unless you have visited the growing areas. Prior to
1964, bunches of bananas were a common sight in all retail markets. They
were hung from the ceiling and the bananas were usually cut to order from
the stalk at the time of purchase. These bunches were carried, one at a
time, on the backs of laborers, into the holds of the banana boats in Latin
America. When they reached port in the United States, they were unloaded
in the same tedious fashion, one bunch at a time, on the backs of laborers,
down the gangplanks and onto trucks waiting on the piers. A hundred years
ago the same methods of loading and unloading were used, but instead of
steam ships and trucks, the bunches were loaded onto sailing vessels and
horse-drawn wagons.
In 1964 this crude, back-breaking, time-consuming method was scuttled. Instead,
the hands of bananas were cut from the stalks right after harvest and packed
in casket-shaped forty-pound boxes. These boxes were trucked to the piers,
stacked on pallets, and lowered into the holds of the ships by mechanical
cranes. Upon arrival at their destination, the ships were unloaded in similar
fashion and the boxes of fruit were loaded onto trucks. Loading and unloading
the banana boats under the old method used to take several days at each
end. Today the ships are loaded and unloaded in a matter of several hours.
Bananas are available twelve months of the year. The supply is both ample
and steady regardless of month, season, or weather, and prices are very
stable and seldom fluctuate. Other fresh fruits that are far less difficult
to grow and are produced much closer to home, usually sell for more than
twice the price of bananas. But thanks to oversupply and fierce competition
by the growing nations, bananas are nearly always the least costly item
at the fruit stand.
Bananas are harvested while they are grass-green. (A stalk-ripened banana
won't taste nearly as good as the ones you can buy in your neighborhood
markets. A banana allowed to ripen prior to harvest is very soft, oily,
and fragile.) When they reach port in North America, they are still grass-green
and as hard as a rock. They are ripened, without being removed from the
banana boxes, in sealed, temperature-controlled areas called banana rooms.
These rooms are equipped to supply the required warmth and humidity to ripen
the fruit properly. The bananas are exposed to a harmless ethylene gas,
similar to the gas naturally exuded by all bananas, that accelerates the
ripening process.
When the bananas are exposed to the proper warmth, humidity, and gas, they
gradually change in color. They go from grass-green to light green to light
yellow to golden-yellow. The light green or light yellow are the ideal colors
to look for when purchasing bananas at the produce counter. After you take
them home, the bananas will continue to ripen. Once they are golden-yellow,
they will fleck with brown spots that look like freckles. The freckles will
continue to grow in size, and eventually all the yellow color will have
disappeared, leaving a totally brown-skinned banana. At each stage of the
color change, the inner flesh of the banana will get softer and sweeter
as the fruit ripens.
The trick to getting the most value and the least loss when purchasing bananas
is to choose those that are light green or light yellow. In the produce
trade this coloring is called on the turn. If you buy golden-yellow fruit
that is ready to eat, you may have trouble. Golden bananas are quite fragile
and often can't stand the rigors of a self-service type of marketing. Chances
are that prior to your arrival at the produce counter, other overzealous
shoppers will have squeezed or bruised the fruit while making their selection.
That part of the banana that has not been handled gently or has been bruised
will discolor and turn black and will have to be discarded.
While bananas don't like cold weather, neither do they like it very hot.
Once the temperature goes into the nineties, they tend to get very soft
and seem to melt. Buying grass-green bananas is a big mistake, yet there
is a tendency on the part of the consumer to buy them dark green in the
heat of the summer. Very often if the bananas are too green, they will not
color up or ripen no matter how warm the weather.
In the winter months, very often the bananas are green because they have
been chilled. Chilled bananas never turn yellow but instead turn a dull
greenish gray. They stay very hard and eventually wind up in the garbage
can. Never buy jade green bananas.
Nearly all bananas offered for sale in most areas are the everyday yellow-skinned
fruit, though there are also some red-skinned bananas that occasionally
show up in some of the more exclusive higher-priced fruit shops. These coral-skinned
bananas are shorter and plumper than the yellow-skinned variety. They have
a softer texture and are slightly sweeter than the yellow bananas. However,
they aren't worth the premium price unless you want to use them for decorative
purposes. There is also a miniature variety called the Lady Finger banana.
They have no special value other than their oddity. They are seldom if ever
offered commercially.
PLANTAINS
A market with a fair amount of Latin American trade will carry fruit that
looks like unattractive, oversized bananas, called plantains. Sometimes
called the potato of the tropics, they are staple food products in all of
the world's lush, tropical areas. This giant cousin to the banana is far
too starchy to eat raw, but is very flavorful and smooth when cooked in
any manner you would cook an Irish potato: boiled, mashed, baked, or fried.
Thin slices of fried plantain are as tasty as our potato chips but far more
nutritious.
Select light green or light yellow bananas and buy only as many as you will
use in two or three days. They are especially perishable in the summertime
because they ripen so quickly in the heat. The industry now advises that
ripe bananas may be refrigerated for a few days and that though the skins
will turn black, the banana itself will be fine. I belong to the old school.
There used to be a jingle, sung by a young lady named Chiquita Banana, that
advised never to put bananas in the refrigerator.
WHEN TO BUY: Available year-round
WHAT TO LOOK FOR: Clear-skinned, not bruised fruit that is light green or
light yellow (jade green or golden yellow fruit should be avoided)
HOW TO STORE: Never refrigerate bananas
Deamer 5/97