3bob Posted January 12, 2016 "Yes, We Have No Bananas, we have no bananas today" "Signs that the world may be ending: Safeway ran out of bananas, both organic and conventional. There were only huge, empty tables where the bananas used to be. How does it happen that a major supermarket runs out of something as basic as bananas? What would cause such an unprecedented run on them? Bananas are America's #1 fruit. They are harvested every day of the year, and are available year-round. Except at Safeway. I know that they will run out of cranberries because they only carry them at Thanksgiving. Since I love cranberries, I buy as many bags as I can cram into my freezer and enjoy them for months. Fresh figs are savored as much for their seasonal availability as for their scrumptiousness. But I can't freeze bananas, or hoard them. Nor has there ever been a need to do so. Bananas are not exotic. They have been readily available all my life, unlike mangoes, papayas, and carambolas. I asked the produce clerk where they had been moved and he spread his hands, beaming broadly. "They are all gone, Senora. Sold out." "Why?" I asked. "At 99 cents a pound, I did not think this would happen," he said, shaking his head at the profligate wanton wastefulness of North Americans. Horticulturists believe that the banana was the earth's first fruit. Banana plants have been in cultivation since the beginning of recorded history, dating back to Alexander the Great's conquest of India where he first discovered them in 327 B.C. In ancient Hawaii, bananas were sacred. Under penalty of death, women were not allowed to eat them until abolition of the taboo in 1819. The banana is considered a perfect food. It has four times the protein of an apple, twice the carbohydrate, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals, and is also rich in potassium. It is not a tree, but an herb. Its trunk is soft and tender at the core, yet strong enough to resist strong winds. Patient and enduring, the banana produces one majestic flower loaded with a complete food. New shoots emerge at its sides. After the fruit reaches maturity, the parent, reassured, simply dies.Now there's some food for thought." Posted by heartinsanfrancisco at 10:07 AM Labels: endangered species - bananas sorry if that wasn't as serious as it might have been, so what the heck we made it another day and maybe Safeway will also restock... 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Brian Posted January 12, 2016 Someone must have had a hankering for a lot of nanner puddin'. Seems to be the only rational explanation. (Or maybe I'm just hungry...) 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Astral Monk Posted January 12, 2016 There are concerns that the banana is on the way to extinction. Would a world without bananas be worth living in? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kar3n Posted January 12, 2016 There was no butter, nor were there eggs at the local big box store yesterday. The things that make you go, hmmm... 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Taomeow Posted January 12, 2016 "Yes, We Have No Bananas, we have no bananas today" "Signs that the world may be ending: Safeway ran out of bananas, both organic and conventional. There were only huge, empty tables where the bananas used to be. How does it happen that a major supermarket runs out of something as basic as bananas? What would cause such an unprecedented run on them? Bananas are America's #1 fruit. They are harvested every day of the year, and are available year-round. Except at Safeway. I know that they will run out of cranberries because they only carry them at Thanksgiving. Since I love cranberries, I buy as many bags as I can cram into my freezer and enjoy them for months. Fresh figs are savored as much for their seasonal availability as for their scrumptiousness. But I can't freeze bananas, or hoard them. Nor has there ever been a need to do so. Bananas are not exotic. They have been readily available all my life, unlike mangoes, papayas, and carambolas. I asked the produce clerk where they had been moved and he spread his hands, beaming broadly. "They are all gone, Senora. Sold out." "Why?" I asked. "At 99 cents a pound, I did not think this would happen," he said, shaking his head at the profligate wanton wastefulness of North Americans. Horticulturists believe that the banana was the earth's first fruit. Banana plants have been in cultivation since the beginning of recorded history, dating back to Alexander the Great's conquest of India where he first discovered them in 327 B.C. In ancient Hawaii, bananas were sacred. Under penalty of death, women were not allowed to eat them until abolition of the taboo in 1819. The banana is considered a perfect food. It has four times the protein of an apple, twice the carbohydrate, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals, and is also rich in potassium. It is not a tree, but an herb. Its trunk is soft and tender at the core, yet strong enough to resist strong winds. Patient and enduring, the banana produces one majestic flower loaded with a complete food. New shoots emerge at its sides. After the fruit reaches maturity, the parent, reassured, simply dies.Now there's some food for thought." Posted by heartinsanfrancisco at 10:07 AM Labels: endangered species - bananas sorry if that wasn't as serious as it might have been, so what the heck we made it another day and maybe Safeway will also restock... I'm back in the USSR... You don't know how lucky you are, boys... 3bob: bananas can be frozen, absolutely. Trader Joe's sells frozen bananas dipped in chocolate. They turn into ice cream of sorts when frozen. Different but not bad at all. I used to actually make banana ice cream at home by simply putting a frozen banana (peeled in advance and sealed in a ziploc bag before going to the freezer to freeze) through a monster device I have in my kitchen. Bananas are not a perfect food. Too sweet. Spike your blood sugar as readily as a piece of cake. If that's not a concern, or if someone needs to gain some weight, then they are OK. For better or for worse, I'm old enough to remember what they tasted like before they started messing with them, genetically modifying them, applying zillions of tons of chemicals, growing them on mineral depleted soils, ripening them by gassing them, etc.. Long ago, far away. And they were very very rare then and there. But you could kill for a real banana then and there, it was worth it. Or even get married for it. Then and there, I met this guy, we started talking about all sorts of things, including food, and I said I loved bananas. No one sold bananas anywhere to anyone at the time. But the next day the guy showed up at my door with a bunch of bananas. I don't know who he had to kill for them. I knew I was getting bribed. It worked. It's not for nothing that they didn't allow women to eat bananas in Hawaii. We lose all control... over a real banana of course, not a GM/gassed one. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mandrake Posted January 12, 2016 As a guy who doesn't like bananas, paradise must be descending! The world is getting better. : ) 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AussieTrees Posted January 12, 2016 Thanks 3bob, That's sought of a relief,but our world is showing signs of wear and tear,cyclones,hurricanes,tornados,drought,ice melting,fish and their oceans the world has seen better days. Storm damage is devastating to banana growers. After 2011 floods Brisbane and much of east coast under water,no bananas for anyone. It took a lot of effort to get to point of ready to eat bananas every day of the year,it really is our world that 'sucks it up',and is remoured to be ending sooner than expected. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
3bob Posted January 12, 2016 those were some fun, informative and unexpected reply's folks - along with serious points about the environmental concerns. Thanks for joining in. A guy I used to work with said that when they were vacationing n Belize they saw lots of banana plantations along the rivers, problem was that almost everything else was dead in those areas except for the bananas, including many fish since the run off of chemicals from the land into rivers had a major impact on them. I was somewhat taken aback by his graphic description or account and ever since then I only buy organic bananas - hoping that the label is at least half true but who really knows for sure? Btw, I like organic coconut milk (not water) and use it instead of milk and so far so good with my body getting along with it. A note of caution: If anyone here is crazy enough to try and steal a healthy banana from Taomeow then I think it safe to say they deserve what they get. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Karl Posted January 12, 2016 There are plenty of signs the world is ending, the least of them is bananas. Time flies like an arrow and fruit flies like a banana. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Marblehead Posted January 12, 2016 Thanks 3bob, That's sought of a relief,but our world is showing signs of wear and tear,cyclones,hurricanes,tornados,drought,ice melting,fish and their oceans the world has seen better days. Storm damage is devastating to banana growers. After 2011 floods Brisbane and much of east coast under water,no bananas for anyone. It took a lot of effort to get to point of ready to eat bananas every day of the year,it really is our world that 'sucks it up',and is remoured to be ending sooner than expected. Hang around until the next ice age. You may change your mind. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Brian Posted January 12, 2016 ...dogs and cats living together... Total chaos. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
thelerner Posted January 12, 2016 Ah you yougsters. In the 1950's Banana's got hit by a devastating fungus called Panama disease. It wiped out bananas as we knew them. Eventually a blander variety called Cavendish that was immune was found and planted. That became the banana we know and love today. Alas, a fiendish fungi has found Cavendish's weakness. Chaos and change until a new top banana becomes the boss. If one can't be found, we'll create it ourselves. After all we've been splitting bananas for decades. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AussieTrees Posted January 12, 2016 Ah you yougsters. In the 1950's Banana's got hit by a devastating fungus called Panama disease. It wiped out bananas as we knew them. Eventually a blander variety called Cavendish that was immune was found and planted. That became the banana we know and love today. Alas, a fiendish fungi has found Cavendish's weakness. Chaos and change until a new top banana becomes the boss. If one can't be found, we'll create it ourselves. After all we've been splitting bananas for decades. Banana splitting should only happen on a Sundae. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AussieTrees Posted January 12, 2016 (edited) Hang around until the next ice age. You may change your mind. Ice age,seen the movie,we could become thelearner of the Wim Hof Method. Edited January 12, 2016 by AussieTrees 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Taomeow Posted January 12, 2016 I saw several different varieties of wild bananas in the rain forest in the Amazon. Didn't eat any though, I was going through shamanic ceremonies and all my senses were altered, and an absolute aversion to all things sweet was part of it. Hummingbirds thrive on them though. A ripe banana falls on its own wide leaf and starts oozing and fermenting and turning into an alcoholic beverage. Hummingbirds flock to the spot and get wasted and then dance in the air chaotically like the proverbial drunken sailors, and look like handfuls of gemstones thrown into the sky, falling back down, thrown upward again. Totally bananas. Thelearner, the non-bland bananas I remember as a rare treat in the old country came from somewhere unaffected by that man-made Panama disease (all diseases of all monocultures are man-made, in nature there's no way they can eliminate a whole species, not in a hundred million years. Mass epidemics are one of the blessings of civilization, all of them.) I don't know where they came from, but they tasted like paradise up until I moved to the US, and that bland banana you're talking about was one of the biggest cultural shocks. Not because it's one of the biggest but because I was bent on having a banana first thing upon arrival, so it was one of the first. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AussieTrees Posted January 12, 2016 "Not because it's one of the biggest but because I was bent on having a banana first thing upon arrival, so it was one of the first." Sounds like you got the munchies after you got bent. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Taomeow Posted January 12, 2016 "Not because it's one of the biggest but because I was bent on having a banana first thing upon arrival, so it was one of the first." Sounds like you got the munchies after you got bent. LOL, it wasn't even about the munchies, it was specifically about the banana. After several more attempts to find the banana I wanted, I quit eating them for a few years, then I sort of made a deal with them, I'll eat a banana when my sensory memory sleeps, I won't when it's awake. To be fair, the same goes for apples, strawberries, grapes... pretty much all fruit. And the rest of edibles. With the exception of things totally absent from my previous life's sensory memory -- lobster, oysters, avocados. No frame of reference, so I am never disappointed with these. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mostly_empty Posted January 12, 2016 "Yes, We Have No Bananas, we have no bananas today" "Signs that the world may be ending: Safeway ran out of bananas, both organic and conventional. There were only huge, empty tables where the bananas used to be. How does it happen that a major supermarket runs out of something as basic as bananas? What would cause such an unprecedented run on them? I rather suspect that someone slipped up. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
3bob Posted January 12, 2016 A you tube clip of two greats in acting Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Marblehead Posted January 12, 2016 Yeah, Boggie had problems with songs. Always brought back memories of lost loves. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
