You’ll go bananas over this tip to help keep your bananas fresher, longer! A seriously easy trick that actually works!
“Go Bananas! B-A-N-A-N-A-S!” First, you’re welcome for that cheer stuck in your brain all day. Trust me it’s been playing over and over in my head for the past few hours as I was typing this. It’s like a bad cheer at a football game and that’s the only cheer they know so it’s repeated a hundred bajillion times. Second, I never thought of doing this trick until I kept noticing it on the type of bananas I bought and then I finally researched it. Once I read why it worked I was like “DUH! You should have paid more attention in science class in high school because every 9th grader knows this!”
So let’s face it, one can only eat so much banana bread/muffins/pancakes/cupcakes/cakes, puddings/custards/cookies/smoothies that involve ripened bananas. I seriously love bananas – a little tinge of green at the tips with a vibrant yellow body is positively perfect for me. When I was training and working out like it was my job I was cramping up pretty bad. An increase in my potassium helped with that. And ever since them I’m at least a one-banana-a-day kind of girl. So I was easily buying 2-3 bunches a week. However when I got hurt with my shoulder I was still buying that many bananas however I couldn’t eat them fast enough. Oh trust me I’d bake like a fiend but again you can only have so much banana-based foods before it starts to wear thin.
So I stopped buying bananas… for like a week. I love bananas and I cut back but then I realized that if I only bought one bunch (about 5 bananas per a bunch) that it wasn’t enough for Mr. Fantabulous and I for the week. It was a struggle when we’d get down the last banana – do I eat it and make him have his cereal without one or do I show him that I love him more by leaving it for him. Yes, these real things in my house.
Anyway, the one day I’m at the grocery store buying bananas and the normal ones I bought were pretty crappy looking while the ones labeled organic looked positively gorgeous. So even though they were slightly a bit more expensive you could just tell by looking at them they were going to be good. When I got home I put the groceries away and peeled one. OMG seriously.. this was unlike any banana I had ever had. I mean it was so amazing. It tasted fresh and the banana taste was just intense. It was so good that I called Mr. Fantabulous out to the kitchen just to try one. Even though I got the side eye look as I was forcing him to take a bite as soon as he tasted it he totally agreed how awesome they were. Since that I was hooked and back up to 2 bunches a day.
However what I noticed is these bananas, they were lasting the full week without turning at all. I didn’t have to rush to make banana bread of freeze banana slices for smoothies. But how? What were so special about these bananas? They were like super banana on steroids. Then I noticed it. I mean I had always noticed it but I never paid attention to it.
What’s this “it”? On the tops of my banana bunches (only the organic had it) was this tight little plastic wrap type cling. But it was only around the tip where bananas all joined together. Hmmm… So when I went back to the store and looked again only the organic ones had it, none of the other ones did. And that’s when I went home and researched ‘why do bananas have plastic tips?’… yeah, I found pretty interesting results (fyi.. not all results were actually banana related either!). lol But what I did find out was the reason why this happens and honestly I didn’t believe it UNTIL I tried it on the non-organic bananas.
So let’s get educated. When fruits or vegetables are peeled or cut, enzymes contained in the plant cells are released. When the cut end is exposed to oxygen from the air, some of the enzymes in the fruit/vegetable causes a “biochemical conversion” that kick starts the browning effect. Bananas produce ethylene and as you know ethylene promotes maturation and ripening of fruits and vegetables. So to help slow down the production of the ethylene, if you wrap the tips of the bunched bananas in plastic wrap tightly (again just the stems where they all join), you’re helping to contain the ethylene and preserve the cut flesh from the air.
Got it? Easy! Simply tightly wrap the stemmed bunch part of your bananas with plastic wrap and your bananas will stay fresher longer. And when you want a banana, take one from the bunch and re-wrap the plastic on the tip!
Leave a Reply