I come from a country where bananas can grow easily in your garden and are plentiful. But not that many people eat them daily. Apples, peaches, grapes are way more common. Swedes though, LOVE their bananas. If workplaces have fruit baskets, the bananas disappear in an instant. There is sometimes a mini ‘banana stampede’. One of the big discussions against Sweden joining the EU was that Sweden could not choose where their bananas came from and the EU was allowed to decide how bendy your banana could be.
The objects below are thus a very common sight in supermarkets. A banana case to prevent your banana from getting squished in your bag.
What number is your perfect banana? For eating, I like 7 or 6. For making banana bread it would be 14 or 15
And if you wonder about how to use a ‘banana for scale’
- banana trees have male and female flowers, on the same plant. Male flowers have normal stamens that form normal pollen. The pollen functions in plant reproduction, but the male banana flowers never form banana fruits. Female flowers have an ovary that develops into a banana fruit but the stamens of female flowers do not make pollen.
- clusters of banana fruits are arranged in groups called hands.
- bananas grow on plants that are officially considered an herb
- the inside of a banana peel can help relieve itching from bug bites or poison ivy
- bananas are classified as berries
- during COVID lockdowns, many more people than normal began baking banana bread because their bananas were going bad.
9 or 10 for me
I live in Colorado in the United States. I eat a banana every day, but I have never experienced a ‘banana stampede!’
I eat a banana every morning and buy them when they’re as green as Paddy’s arse. I eat them while they’re still half green but lately here in NYC they seem to ripen too quickly. Greengrocers and street vendors are much better than supermarkets. (For a lot more than bananas too.)