I just bought my first box of bananas last week and I love it. I just got done freezing them and what was remarkable was how few bad spots I had to cut out of the bananas as I peeled them.

This is because they haven't been handled at all. Before, they were unloaded from the box, then sat on the shelf where people picked them up and looked at them, then they took a ride in the grocery cart where they might pick up marks from the bars on the cart, they were weighed, bagged, carted again, took a car trip, unloaded . . . they might have been handled ten times or more. When they are in a box, they couldn't be more protected.

My WalMart has boxes of bananas setting out on a shelf down low on the banana stand but, when I was a kid, I saw my parents buy boxes of bananas from all kinds of stores (I grew up on banana ice cream!). You just ask the produce guy if you could get a box and he disappears into the backroom and brings you a box. They always seem happy to do it too, I guess it moves a lot of produce and they don't have to put it on the produce stand. The tricky part is the checkout, because the checkout person might not be familar with how to ring up 40 pounds of bananas without weighing them.

lillian--
Do they give you a discount for buying them by the box?

Sharrhan:


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Yeah....I ALWAYS make friends with the ones who run the local indoor produce shops. They ALWAYS have over-ripe bananas that they either have to ditch....or put out for cheap sale. If they know that some one like you will take them, then they'll either give them to you (if you are a loyal customer) or sell them to you for a song (I paid .19 lb). My old produce stand would sell me excellent (not soft) but very ripe bananas by the box. I would bring them into the Boys & Girls Club every day for the kids....and just constantly snack while working. It was great.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

I've never seen a discount for doing this, but wouldn't they put extra bananas in to make sure they had 40 pounds, kind of like a bakers dozen is 13?

David do you think more fruit flies come in boxes v. buying them unboxed? I never remember fruit flies being an issue when my parents bought them, but this last box I bought was a fruitfly hotel. The next box might have to go into a garbage bag to ripen.

40 pounds of banana seems quite excessive don't you think? My favorite is pineapple, watermelon and definently apples

During the winter I'll buy an entire box of bananas. Its best if you can buy them from the wholesale distributor (you'll need to start a buying coop though) for the best price.

It can be a challenge it eat all the bananas before they go over ripe if the weather is warm. But in cooler weather, they seem to last longer before going bad. And when they do get pretty ripe, I put them in the freezer for smoothies or banana ice cream.

I buy lots of bananas. I never heard of buying a box.

What is raw banana ice cream?


WendySmiling in Oklahoma
www.16weeks2health.blogspot.com
12/17/10.......240/155/125

wendy--
My 'banana ice cream' is probably a simpler version than most people's, but I love it: just take ripe or really speckled bananas and peel & chop and put into freezer containers or freezer bags. Freeze for at least 18 hours and something amazing happens to the taste of the banana in the freezing: it becomes even more delicious. If it's only partially frozen, it doesn't taste so good, but as soon as it's frozen, mmmmmm, good. When I'm going through spring or fall transition (when I often get a little hungry and confused about what to eat) my banana treats are a late night snack staple that keeps me on track.

Sharrhan:


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Ha! ha! I assume ANY bananas....especially ones that have been sitting at an outdoor stand.....to have fruit fly eggs on the peel. Early students couldn't figure out why banana peels put under a glass would form fruit flies! LOL. It's because the eggs are already there!

-The best way (I've found) to keep control of fruit flies is to refrigerate food long before it reaches the over-ripe stage. Discarded peelings need to be kept in very small events, and then almost immediately bagged and taken outside for disposal or composting.

-Just my experience.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

Thanks David,I was wondering if they were hiding in the box itself but now I realize that they were in the peel.

My mom researched fruitflys on the internet for me and told me how to catch them. I made fruit fly traps by putting bait in a container and then covering it with waxpaper and securing it with a rubber band, then I poked holes in the waxpaper with a fork (about three time). The flies go in and can't get out, then you can take tham outside and let them go!

I was laughing at the posts here about buying Bananas by
the box, until I suddenly realized that I buy sun-dried
Hunza Apricots 20-pounds at a time......WY

i want to buy dates by the box

Actually I do need that many bananas, I have four people eating them and 40 pounds a week for four people is only a little more than 1 pound per person per day - that's not a whole lot actually. I used to fill up the top of my fridge or stove twice a week with bananas, now I just buy a box and I have remarkably less waste due to having to cut out the bad spots. Before, my frozen bananas were all cut up or were missing an end where I had cut out the bad spots, now they virtually pristine!

Kwan, I think frozen bananas taste better too.

Just want to say WRT to bananas, that green bags totally rule.

I buy a 40 pound box just about every week to 9 days I do put some in the fridge so they all dont ripen at the same time.

Cherimoya,

Love Peace and Happiness,