Bananas!

[Mad Dilys]

What has happened to the lovely bananas that were astaple of my diet?
My local big supermarket shifts over a tonne a week - there's one chap who does very little more than ferry them to fill the inadequate display so I'm not the only one who loves them.

BUT I first noticed the lack of taste about a year ago, along with extended shelf life. Recently the skins of ripe bananas go soft and fall to pieces as they are peeled. Ugh!

Finally the SMELL double Ugh! when I opened the bag this morning I had to open the back door as well and use an air freshener. Just disgusting! It's the same from all the local suppliers irrespective of size or FreeTrade or not. What's going on?

[LovelyLadyLux]

Interesting you mention Bananas as last week in Mexico there were more bananas around than I've ever seen there. Stacked for the tourists everywhere on platters yet not one orange in sight.

This is mostly trivia but two years ago a Hurricane that went through the Caribbean and wiped out the banana trees/crop of Dominica and presumably all other Islands in that area. Other hurricanes have happened since. Not too sure how long it takes a banana tree to grow to maturity and produce bananas but am sure it is a couple years.

I've bought blueberries here from Chile that when I ate them they almost dried my mouth (even after washing them). It was so bad I retrieved the container from the garbage to find they'd been sprayed with a sulphur compound presumably to extend their shelf life. Possibly are they doing this now with bananas? If wherever you're getting your bananas from has an extended shipping time it is possible they're now bagging them and spraying them to slow down the ripening. (Just my thought on this)

[Ruby Slippers]

DH tends to buy bananas by the bucketful! The best part is that he doesn't eat them! I'm sure he over buys so that, when they go brown or speckled, I end up making a banana and walnut loaf - which he loves! A method in his madness.

[Grandad]

I believe that, as with other imported fruit, bananas need to be harvested slightly under ripe. This assumes that they will ripen during transit and when on the shelves.
My theory is that imported fruit is transpored in chilled conditions which slows the ripening process.
The fruit that we exxperience an under ripe problem is melons. Even when we store them in a warm cupboard they don't ripen properly.

[Mad Dilys]

Bananas have always in my lifetime been chilled before sale in the UK, The important thing is to keep them cool and in very big bunches, as soon as the stem is broken near the fruit they start to decay.

I grow bananas in my garden in Luxor, If I want to speed up ripening I break the huge bunches into smaller ones of perhaps 10 or 12 fruits and put them in a big black plastic back with a ripe apple of too, which works well.

However until recently in the UK there was a natural progression to the ripening, from clear yellow to flecked and freckled and finally black - with the skin staying dry all the time and they smelt delicious.

I'm going to see if I can find out what's going on.

I was starting to get fruit from my plants about 18 months after they were first planted. I had about 20 perfectly normal and one mutation which was only about 5 feet tall not very robust and the fruit was very small, interesting.

[LovelyLadyLux]

@Mad Dilys - I'd first explore if they're spraying them with something in efforts to slow the ripening.

@Grandad - Interesting you can't get melons to ripen. I can't get Kiwi fruit to ripen. It is sold rock hard in our stores and stays rock hard 'til it rots totally skipping the ripe stage. I haven't bought them for years now because I've yet to be able to taste a properly ripe one.

[Mad Dilys]

This last year I've had to throw away apricots, peaches, persimmons and now this month avocados. Remain hard and tasteless gradually shrinking and looking inedible. Stuff remains looking OK for far too long but the texture and taste are horrid.

[LovelyLadyLux]

@Mad Dilys That is what I'm finding too. Apples now are living approximately 3 lifetimes in my fridge, oranges never die and I don't ever buy store bought strawberries as they're always under ripe and never do ripen properly.

The daughter has taken to washing all fruit in a water with vinegar added rinse in the sink to get whatever is sprayed on them off. She claims that helps with the proper ripening and when you see the guck in her sink after rinsing the fruit it does make you wonder what all IS really being sprayed on them.