Banana Trivia

You may remember how annoying I find bananas to be when they ripen too fast. I recently read some food trivia, and amongst them were a couple banana facts . Supposedly, if you separate your bananas when you get them home they'll take longer to ripen. The scientist in me feels an experiment coming on. I'll publish my results in Popular Science, and perhaps Banana Digest.

The other banana fact? If you peel them from the bottom, you won't get all that stringy stuff. I'll test the validity of that banana fact tomorrow morning.

Science! I do feel compelled to share my scientific research and hypothesis for banana fact the former. I haven't found any verification online about separating your bananas, but I have found suggestions to keep your bananas on a banana hanger - not to be confused with a banana hammock - to slow down the ripening process. The banana is a climacteric fruit, which means the hormone ethylene catalyzes ripening; and while ripening the fruit also produces ethylene gas (how circular). Other climacteric fruit are peaches, tomatoes, you know - anything that rots. Nonclimacteric fruits (apples, pineapple, etc.) do not exhibit the increase in respiration nor the rise in ethylene production, which is why they keep much longer and don't go mushy on your countertop. Basically, climacteric fruits are picked and sold before they're ripe, and nonclimactic fruit are ripe on the shelves. No paper bags required for apples, right? So, the reason putting peaches, bananas, etc. in paper bags is to contain the ethylene gas thereby raising its concentration, which quickens ripening. I assume the banana hanger allows the gas to dissipate much easier thus slowing the ripening process. I hypothesize that by separating the bananas you are also allowing the gas to dissipate more easily. Perhaps storing them in front of a fan would be a further benefit. I've also read not to store fruit next to each others because they'll ripen mucho fastido.

As for banana fact the latter (peeling from the bottom). That's just witchcraft.