banana faq

Bananas are believed to have originated up to 10,000 years ago and some scientists believe they may have been the world’s first fruit. The first bananas are thought to have grown in the region that includes the Malaya Peninsula, Indonesia, the Philippines and New Guinea. From here, traders and travelers took them to India, Africa and Polynesia. There were references to bananas from 600 BC when Buddhist scriptures, know as the Pali Canon, noted Indian traders travelling through the Malaysian region had tasted the fruit and brought plants back with them. In 327 BC, when Alexander The Great and his army invaded India, he discovered banana crop in the Indian Valleys. After tasting this unusual fruit for the first time, he introduced this new discovery to the Western world.

STAY HYDRATED WITH DASANI WATER ONLY $1.99

More Banana HistoryBy 200 AD bananas had spread to China. According to the Chinese historian Yang Fu, bananas only ever grew in the southern region of China. They were never really popular until the 20th Century as they were considered to be a strange and exotic alien fruit. The bananas we enjoy today are far better than the original wild fruit which contained many large, hard seeds and not much tasty pulp. Bananas as we know them began to be developed in Africa about 650 AD. There was a cross breeding of two varieties of wild bananas, the Musa Acuminata and the Musa Baalbisiana. From this process, some bananas became seedless and more like the bananas we eat today. Most historians believe that the Arabian slave traders are the ones who gave the banana its popular name. The bananas that originated from Southeast Asia were not the size that we are familiar with today. They were small, about as long as an adult finger, hence the name “banan”, Arabic for finger. However, some believe the name may have come from a local language in West Africa. Bananas are also known as plantains. Spaniards, saw a similarity to their native plane tree, gave the fruit the name platano. This led to the

The banana should be a light-yellow, greenish color. Take one down from the bundle, also called the bunch or hand. If it's too hard to peel, then they are not done yet. When it's time to pick, feel the bananas. If it is soft and the peel feels thin, then it's a good time to harvest them. Bananas can be harvested when they are about 75 percent mature and will continue to ripen off the plant. Look for a hand-shaped bundle without any pointy angles, that is filled out nicely by the fruits. If flower remnants on that bundle rub off easily, it is ready. Bananas require a warm climate in order to grow, and they are quite sensitive to cool temperatures. The entire process to ripen a banana, specifically a dwarf banana, can take about 70-100 days. Though, a rapid change in temperature can cause them to ripen slower, faster, or halt the growth altogether.