Storing bananas

The Wycliffe Cookbook

My jar and bananas (this is the short variety of banana)

The great experiment is underway

 While looking for tips on roasting peanuts, I happened upon the page above in my trusty Wycliffe cookbook.  It's a cookbook written by many different Wycliffe Bible Translators missionaries from around the world and is designed for international cooking.  It is a good source of info on food substitutions and tropics-friendly, from-scratch recipes.

On the page pictured above, this item caught my attention: "To store bananas: Fresh, peeled bananas may be put in a glass jar with a tight lid and kept this way for a week or more.  No refrigeration necessary."

Seriously?!  You can peel bananas, put them in a jar, and expect them to stay fresh for a week or more?!  That seems utterly ridiculous to me and I can't believe they wouldn't turn into a brown, mushy mess.  Being an adventurous missionary, I have taken the plunge and am trying it out.  This afternoon I peeled two bananas and put them in my tightest-sealing jar.  I only put in two from my bunch, because I'm not only adventurous, but also cautious and doubtful and don't want to lose all of my bananas in case this doesn't work!

If they are still edible-looking, I plan to eat one banana after three days and another on Saturday, to give it the full week-long trial.  I will report back here about how my little banana experiment goes.