The Secret Life of the City Banana

August 5, 2017 12:22 PM

Millions of bananas arrive every week in New York City. It takes a lot to get them from the boat to the bodega. (SLNYT)

In most of the country, the unseen, nocturnal business of ripening and distributing bananas is performed by grocery chains. In New York, much of the work still falls to local banana purveyors.

posted by poffin boffin (34 comments total)

Relevant Drunk History segment.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:46 PM on August 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Daylight come and I wanna go home?
posted by infini at 12:48 PM on August 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

local banana purveyors

Great band name right there
posted by Itaxpica at 1:27 PM on August 5, 2017 [4 favorites]

And the deadly black tarantulas? Same way?
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 1:28 PM on August 5, 2017 [3 favorites]

local banana purveyors
Great band name right there

Fair enough, but "The Secret Life of the City Banana" is an even better sockpuppet name.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:39 PM on August 5, 2017 [4 favorites]

i like the bit about the zillions of other available bananas in india, where the boring cavendish are called hotel bananas. i want to try 100 different indian bananas now, dammit.
posted by poffin boffin at 1:53 PM on August 5, 2017 [15 favorites]

I say I don't like bananas but maybe I only dislike Cavendish bananas? I'd be willing to try others.
posted by Splunge at 2:04 PM on August 5, 2017

Obligatory Harry Chapin: 30 THOUSAND POUNDS of BANANAS
posted by mikelieman at 2:07 PM on August 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

And of course it being the NY Times they did not pass up the chance to throw in a dig at millennials.
posted by srboisvert at 2:11 PM on August 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

it being the NY Times they did not pass up the chance to throw in a dig at millennials.

I didn't think that the fact that millennials were immune to the charms of a 60-year-old jingle invented to palm off half-rotten bananas on yokels counted as a dig against millennials.

(ed note: author is not a millennial, but does prefer a somewhat firm, green-edged banana when selecting same.)
posted by Diablevert at 2:18 PM on August 5, 2017 [3 favorites]

I say I don't like bananas but maybe I only dislike Cavendish bananas? I'd be willing to try others.

I have good news-- well, "good" news for you then.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 2:19 PM on August 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Ethylene is combustible, and in 1936, the Pittsburgh Banana Company building exploded, causing it to rain bananas in the city’s Strip District.

The Pitt Archives post doesn't mention raining bananas in the primary source, but it's a compelling image.
posted by zamboni at 2:55 PM on August 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

this shit is bananas
posted by indubitable at 3:14 PM on August 5, 2017 [7 favorites]

If you're at all interested in the surprising and powerful history (and future) of the banana I can recommend Dan Koeppel's book Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World.

It is horrifying to me that an ultra-delicate fruit like this can be shipped half way round the world and be in my fruit bowl right in the tiny window of perfect ripeness, and all for about a third of the cost of a locally grown apple which can take much more of a beating and still be in decent condition to eat for weeks on end. Dan Koeppel's book goes a long way to explaining how that came to be.
posted by merlynkline at 3:15 PM on August 5, 2017 [9 favorites]

What's the explanation, merlynkline? I'm guessing something to do with either labour practises or the high productivity of banana trees? Why can't it be done with apples?
posted by clawsoon at 3:32 PM on August 5, 2017

It's complicated. But yes, terrible labour practices (the term "banana republic" is not metaphorical; those countries were literally created and destroyed to serve the banana industry), appalling politics (CIA intervention in foreign governments), and terrifying business practices all contributed to the creation of a supply chain that is not as bad as all that now, but still can "compete" very effectively with locally grown fruits, especially temperate ones like apples which are less, err, fruitful (i.e need a larger area of more expensive land for a longer time to produce the same crop). There were other more benign factors too, of course, e.g. pretty much inventing refrigerated shipping, and working out timing of picking and delivery to a fine degree. Other stuff too no doubt - it's been a while since I read it.
posted by merlynkline at 3:48 PM on August 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

I wonder what "apple republic" would imply, were it ever to be used. Some sort of contrast to a "banana republic"? Perhaps the U.S. is an "apple republic"? Or Kazakhstan?
posted by clawsoon at 3:54 PM on August 5, 2017

Ann Arbor has a store called Cherry Republic, which is kind of a weird choice, because of exactly that reason -- what kind of comparison does that bring to mind? Are you trying to seem like a banana republic (or slightly better, a Banana Republic®), or trying to say you're unlike one, which isn't much of a bar to clear?
posted by axiom at 4:28 PM on August 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

great now i want to go apple hunting in kazakhstan with a 100 year old guide
posted by poffin boffin at 4:30 PM on August 5, 2017 [6 favorites]

I wonder what "apple republic" would imply, were it ever to be used.

We would send out our Northern Spies to round up the Ida Reds.

(NY applez represent)
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:48 PM on August 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

I wonder what "apple republic" would imply, were it ever to be used.

Hard cider, historically.
posted by clew at 6:09 PM on August 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

I wonder what "apple republic" would imply, were it ever to be used. Some sort of contrast to a "banana republic"? Perhaps the U.S. is an "apple republic"?

You might have called the Confederacy a cotton republic, but the modern US is not ruled by a particular cash crop.
posted by indubitable at 6:10 PM on August 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Previously
posted by gusandrews at 7:21 PM on August 5, 2017

From the Previously: "The energy coming off a box of ripening bananas could heat a small apartment."

Cogeneration opportunity, surely?
posted by clew at 7:30 PM on August 5, 2017

I turned "apple republic" into an askme. I'm really enjoying the replies there and here.
posted by clawsoon at 7:40 PM on August 5, 2017

Obligatory Harry Chapin: 30 THOUSAND POUNDS of BANANAS ...

Not so obligatory, the story of me and Harry and the bananas. I’m sure the truck driver, who died in the wreck, didn't think the incident was so humorous.
posted by LeLiLo at 9:09 PM on August 5, 2017

So, let me confirm, to make sure I got this right.

This article is about making sure yes, we have some bananas today?
posted by Samizdata at 12:06 AM on August 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

Heh. Interesting idea. And on consideration almost as horrifying that many of the apples we buy here in the UK are shipped from (e.g.) New Zealand but are still priced similarly to local ones. I don't imagine for a minute that the same terrible backstory applies but the various costs of transporting them seem worrying.
posted by merlynkline at 1:14 AM on August 6, 2017

At least the distributor's got some skin in the game.
posted by Devonian at 6:40 AM on August 6, 2017

Malaysia has excellent diversity too. Hotel bananas suck!
posted by Meatbomb at 7:26 AM on August 6, 2017

Here in sunny Fla, my grandfather used to grow apple bananas in his yard. Fat little guys, about the size of a link sausage, skin like slimy tissue paper. Fragrant like apple skins, so creamy and sweet. They were incredible; our neighbors from Puerto Rico and Cuba and Haiti and the DR and Panama would all come by to sample a few when they were ripening. And they went from green to ripe to rotten in about 48 hours.

Every once in a while I see them in grocery stores nowadays but they're terrible. Bitter, gritty, awful. Whence the manzano bananas of yesteryear?
posted by penduluum at 8:42 AM on August 6, 2017

i like the bit about the zillions of other available bananas in india, where the boring cavendish are called hotel bananas. i want to try 100 different indian bananas now, dammit.

Oh man, yeah, I really miss Indian bananas and also mangoes. I basically don't eat bananas and mangoes in the US because I know I'll always be disappointed. Oh for a tiny hill banana or my grandmother's sweet plantains roasted with brown sugar. And don't get me started on the mangoes - I just realized it's basically been 10 years since I've had a decent mango, because I've been timing my visits to India for the cooler winter when mangoes are not in season.

However, I will say that the US has India beat well on apples and berries. I take consolation in Honeycrisps.
posted by peacheater at 9:57 AM on August 6, 2017 [3 favorites]

goreng pisang recipe

Dodo recipe included

and finally, when Mom used make chips the way she learnt from Mrs Chacko down the street
posted by infini at 12:39 PM on August 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

I had a plain grocery store Cavendish banana for supper tonight, and all I could think of while I was eating was all those sweet foreign bananas I'm probably never gonna get to taste.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:59 PM on August 6, 2017 [1 favorite]