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I love bananas. Always love to eat them fresh out of the peel, and to bake with them. I even love to use them in smoothies. And to dehydrate them and use them for snacks. But one thing I hate about bananas is how quickly they ripen. Then they are no good to eat. But there is good news! You can actually slow this process down, keeping your bananas from browning too quickly.
Like most fresh fruits and vegetables, bananas release ethylene, an all-natural gas. Ethylene actually causes the produce to ripen. The majority of the ethylene gas is released from the stem. So, when you cover the group of stems, known as the crown, you can actually slow down the ripening process.
Ripening speed
Now, bananas all ripen at different speeds. So the ethylene released by one banana can, in fact, cause the other bananas to ripen more quickly. You can counteract this by separating the bananas and wrapping the stems individually. This prevents the ethylene from faster ripening fruit from speeding up the ripening of the fruit that will ripen more slowly.
What to use: simple plastic wrap will do the trick and will slow down the browning process so that you can enjoy your bananas longer! This will save you money by increasing the life of your fruit!
But what should you do if they get too ripe to eat? One tip is to peel them, slice them up, place them in a freezer bag and freeze them to throw into your next smoothie. Or you can peel them, cut them into chunks, freeze them and throw them into your food processor to make an easy dairy-free ice cream substitute! Of course, you can always make a tasty loaf of quick bread with them!
Trying any of these tricks can help you to be less wasteful and keep you from throwing away food that has gone bad!
