Fruit
Food Politics

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In the News . . .

Q&A: The banana wars -- BBC News (15 December 2010)

From
The Scout Report
25 March 2010
Volume 16, Number 12

In California, a rather unique museum looks for a new home

In California, the Banana Museum Has Lost Its Appeal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704534904575131660097881550.html

The Saddest, Scariest Story About a Dying Banana Museum Ever
http://gawker.com/5499699/the-saddest-scariest-story-about-a-dying-banana-museum-ever

Bananas: A Storied Fruit With An Uncertain Future [Real Player]
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19097412

The Banana Club Museum
http://www.bananaclub.com/InsideMuseum.htm

National Apple Museum
http://www.nationalapplemuseum.com/

All Recipes: Banana
http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Fruits-and-Vegetables/Fruits/Bananas/Main.aspx

Ken Bannister is a man in love with bananas. Over the past four decades he has managed to amass more than 17,000 banana-focused items, and he is also the founder of the International Banana Club and Museum in Hesperia, California. Browsing around the Museum's headquarters, visitors might catch a glimpse of a gold-sequined "Michael Jackson banana", a banana beach mat, and many banana salt-and-pepper shaker sets. These waves and crescendos of yellow are looking for a new home these days, as the Hesperia Recreation & Parks District informed Bannister in January that his collection (which is located in a District building) would need to relocate. Now, Bannister is attempting to take his bananas on the road, but he is having little luck as of late. He placed the entire collection up for auction on eBay in February for a "bargain price" of $45000. There were no takers, even after Bannister reduced the price several times. Interested parties might want to make a quick trip to Hesperia, or if they miss out, there's always the National Apple Museum in Biglerville, Pennsylvania. [KMG]

The first link will take visitors to a Wall Street Journal article from this Tuesday on the current state of the Banana Museum, complete with a slideshow of images. The second link leads to another news piece from Gawker about the Museum. Moving on, the third link will take users to a fascinating interview from NPR's Fresh Air program that profiles Dan Koeppel, author of "Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World". The fourth link leads to the official homepage of the Banana Museum. For those looking for an excuse for a road trip, the fifth link leads to the homepage of the National Apple Museum. The site contains a cornucopia of material on apples, fruit growers in the area, and nearby lodging and dining options. The final link leads to a wide-ranging selection of banana-themed recipes from the All Recipes site. There are many variations on banana bread, banana pancakes, and the lesser-known chocolate banana cream pie.

• Banana -- All Recipes
  
  
• The Banana Club Museum
  
  
• BananaLink
  
  
• Bananas! (the movie)
  
  
• Banana [Research & Impact: Areas of Research] -- Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
  
  
• Bananas Web

  • timeline
    
    
• Banana Republic: The United Fruit Company
  
  
• Cavendish banana -- Wikipedia
  
  

  • Musa cavendishii
  • William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire
  • Koeppel, Dan. "Yes, We Will Have No Bananas" (Editorial) -- New York Times (18 June 2008)
    
    
• Chiquita

  • corporation
• timeline
  
  
• Chiquita Brands International -- Wikipedia
  
  
• Del Monte Foods
  
  
• Dole Food Company -- Wikipedia
  
  
• Fyffes

  • Fyffes Bananas
    
    
• Fyffes -- Wikipedia
  
  
• Honduras Foundation for Agricultural Research -- Wikipedia
  (Fundación Hondureña de Investigación Agrícola or FHIA)
  
  
• Koeppel, Dan. Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World. NY: Penguin Hudson, 2008.
  
  

  • Bananas: A Storied Fruit With An Uncertain Future [an interview with Dan Koeppel] -- NPR (18 February 2008)
    



 

• Koeppel, Dan. "Can This Fruit Be Saved?" -- Popsci.com (19 June 2008)
  
  
• Koeppel, Dan. "Yes, We Will Have No Bananas" (Editorial) -- New York Times (18 June 2008)
  
  
• Laboratory of Tropical Crop Improvement, Division of Crop Biotechnics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
  
  
• National Banana Month -- Wikipedia
  
  
• Timelines

  • Chronology -- United Fruit Historical Society
  • Dole Food Company
  • The food timeline
  • timeline -- Bananas Web
  • timeline -- Chiquita
    
    
• Toussaint-Samat, Maguelonne. A History of Food. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons/Blackwell 2009.
  
  
• Turback, Michael. The Banana Split Book: Everything There Is to Know About America's Greatest Dessert. Philadelphia, PA: Camino Books, 2004.
  
  
• United Fruit Company -- Wikipedia

  • "Our Complex History"
    
    
• United Fruit Historical Society

  • Chronology
    
    
• Urban Legends Reference Pages: Food (Banana Peal)
  
  
• "Yes! We Have No Bananas" -- Wikipedia

What are the black specks that are sometimes in the middle of bananas?

-- Marzee Denham, Florissant, Mo.
5 October 2008

They're seeds, which are often unnoticed when they're tiny. But if you plant one, it won't grow into a banana plant (which is actually a huge herb, not a tree, although it looks like one). Banana plants are sterile. New plants grow from shoots that come from the underground stem.

So why are there seeds? Several thousand years ago, humans crossed some inedible, wild banana plants. The result was a sterile hybrid that produced plentiful, fine food. Today, hundreds of varieties exist.