Bananas Everywhere

seven dehydrator trays of bananas

Food World (Belle Foods) will close for good on Saturday night. Today, employees were packaging bananas and tagging them at $0.20/lb. I bought 15 lbs. (4 tray packs) and have slaved over them in order to dehydrate them before they go bad. Seven out of nine trays have been filled. Since I put them on the tray one plate of sliced bananas at a time, the top bananas have started turning brown and shrinking a bit.

 

All the bananas were very firm and a bit under-ripe tasting. They sweeten as they dehydrate. Only one banana had any sort of blemish in the center. I cut out that huge bruise. Out of 15 lbs. of bananas, I only had about 1/4 cup of flesh trimmed. These bananas had not developed those nasty strings that I hate to eat. Only a half-dozen had strings. Some had the little black, hard places on the blossom ends. The hens get those. I ate the point on the stem end.

 

 

This is the last package, but Blogger decided it should be here.

 

Notice the stems have been cut right off. The produce people cut the stems so the banana fits on the black, Styrofoam tray and can be shrink-wrapped with cellophane. No stems=more savings. Since they are sold by the pound, I am in favor of getting rid of excess weight.

 

 

There is one more tray that was not pictured.

 

Bananas not quite ripe are best when dehydrated. Somehow, they get sweeter. Maybe it is the heat. As you can see, I fortified myself with candy corn from a Harvest Mix. The bag of peels will go to the hens in the morning when they get dry oats. I have to drive 39 miles for a mystery shopper gig, so they will be inside with something to peck at.

 

I have so much produce to dehydrate!

 

UPDATE:

To answer a question, I do not treat with lemon juice or anything else. The first bananas I ever dehydrated, I treated half with lemon juice and half I treated with nothing. I could see no difference in the color of the final products. Treating with lemon juice is supposed to keep the banana sliceds white. It does not.

 

Your turn

There are many sales around town this week. Found anything outstanding? What are you canning or dehydrating?