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Yes, We Have No Bananas!

Allow time after buying them for bananas to ripen - do not eat when they're still yellow! The skin should be speckled with brown spots, or even mostly brown, for the sweetness and flavour of the fruit to develop. :)

Definitely agree with that.
 
Allow time after buying them for bananas to ripen - do not eat when they're still yellow! The skin should be speckled with brown spots, or even mostly brown, for the sweetness and flavour of the fruit to develop. :)
Yep, I do that and they still taste soapy.
 
Most fruit and veg is now selected and grown for durability, not taste. And pumped full of chemicals to aid that durability.

Incredibly, taste is considered low on the scale of importance.

I was thinking this just recently and the ironic thing is I can't remember what it was I was eating at the time! So it must be true.
 
Most fruit and veg is now selected and grown for durability, not taste. And pumped full of chemicals to aid that durability.

Incredibly, taste is considered low on the scale of importance.

It's the same with eggs, Store bought - titanium shells with a weird golden yolks. Local chickens for local people - brittle shells, lovely fresh yellow yolks and taste amazing.
 
It's the same with eggs, Store bought - titanium shells with a weird golden yolks. Local chickens for local people - brittle shells, lovely fresh yellow yolks and taste amazing.
Just a theory, but maybe the store bought ones had thick shells as a result of the farmer feeding the birds a calcium supplement? Deliberately so the shells wouldn't break easily during transportation.
 
Just a theory, but maybe the store bought ones had thick shells as a result of the farmer feeding the birds a calcium supplement? Deliberately so the shells wouldn't break easily during transportation.


I don't doubt it, just as they pump stuff into veg so they don 't have scuzy bits.
 
...And then they'll replace them with terrifying GM Mutations!!!...

The Ford mutations are even worst.

INT21
 
Here's the most recent update on the situation. The core debates seem to focus on the means for saving bananas as a mass-produced fruit product, with suggestions ranging from genetic engineering to re-thinking the farming protocols used to raise them.
Are Bananas Doomed?

Humans consume 100 billion bananas annually. For many of us, it was one of the first solid foods we ate. We're so enamoured with bananas that we've written songs about them: Bizarrely, bananas are mentioned in music more than any other fruit is.

So, what if we discovered that one day in the not-too-distant future, this familiar staple will vanish from the breakfast table? The most common banana subgroup — the Cavendish, which makes up most of the global market — is under assault from insect infestations, declining soil fertility and climate change. But the biggest hazard by far are two plant pathogens that are scavenging their way through vast monoculture (large scale, single-crop) plantations of this fruit worldwide. "We are in danger, with so much of the market taken up by this one subgroup," said Nicolas Roux, a senior scientist at Bioversity International in France and team leader of the organization's banana-genetics resources.

So, are bananas doomed - or can we save them still? ...

Banana-Baby.jpeg

Say WHAT ?!?

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/65830-will-bananas-go-extinct.html
 
Ages ago, I read that the composer of "Yes, We Have No Bananas" based the tune on two motifs. The "Yes, we have no" part was based on the "Hallelujah" Chorus, the word bananas was thrown in, and the opening verse was copied from "I Dreamed I Dwelt In Marble Halls." I can't think of the song without thinking "Hallelujah, bananas!" now.
 
Ages ago, I read that the composer of "Yes, We Have No Bananas" based the tune on two motifs. The "Yes, we have no" part was based on the "Hallelujah" Chorus, the word bananas was thrown in, and the opening verse was copied from "I Dreamed I Dwelt In Marble Halls." I can't think of the song without thinking "Hallelujah, bananas!" now.

David Niven in his autobiography mentions losing his virginity to a London prostitute while this song was playing on her wind-up gramophone.
 
The long-dreaded arrival of a deadly banana fungus in South America has rekindled alarm over the banana industry's future ...
Banana industry on alert after disease arrives in Colombia

It might not be obvious at the supermarket, but the banana industry is fighting to protect the most popular variety of the fruit from a destructive fungus.

A disease that ravages banana crops has made its long-dreaded arrival in Latin America, the biggest exporter of the crop. That’s reigniting worries about the global market’s dependence on a single type of banana, the Cavendish, which is known for its durability in shipping.

For years, scientists have said big banana companies like Chiquita and Dole would eventually need to find new banana varieties as the disease spread in countries in Asia and elsewhere. Then this month, the fungus was confirmed in Colombia, one of the top exporters in Latin America, prompting officials in the country to declare a state of emergency.

Banana industry watchers say it’s more proof the Cavendish’s days are numbered, but that there’s still plenty of time to find alternatives. ...

While all sorts of bananas are grown around the world for domestic consumption, the ones shipped to places including the United States and the European Union are mostly Cavendishes. It may seem odd that the world banana market would hitch its fortunes to a single variety, but mass producing just one kind is a way to keep costs down, which also helps make bananas so widely available.

Bananas are also hard to breed, and finding varieties suited to global commerce isn’t easy. In addition to being productive, Cavendish plants yield bananas that can survive the trip from warm climates to far-flung supermarkets, without ripening too quickly.

Still, history has shown the risks of relying on a single banana variety. Not that long ago, the world market was ruled by another banana, the Gros Michel, aka the Big Mike. Experts say it was even easier to ship than the Cavendish, and sweeter (though others contend it tasted similar). Either way, the Gros Michel was ravaged by the 1950s by an earlier strain of the disease now stalking the Cavendish.

SOURCE: https://www.apnews.com/35a6b0d1ed854155b56baa65cfa6ce2d
 
Yes, we have no bananas. we have no bananas today.
 
All bananas are British anyway. If the rest of the world like them so much they should have come up with their own.

Buy a banana and it will almost certainly be descended from one plant grown at an English stately home. But now we face losing one of the world's most-loved fruits.
Sitting in picture-perfect Peak District grounds, Chatsworth House seems an unlikely birthplace for today's global banana industry.
But practically every banana consumed in the western world is directly descended from a plant grown in the Derbyshire estate's hothouse 180 years ago.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35131751
 
Well the original article was definitely not absolutely correct — I'm still absolutely drowning in bananas sixteen years on. As to enolagaia's link about the coming doom of the Cavendish - remember that for a long time the standard banana was the Gros Michel, which was similarly afflicted by plague. There are a lot more varieties out there, and who knows what kinds will be bred or engineered in the future.
 
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