Steve and Spade Braithwaite are making a film documentary about building a huge banana car and driving it around the world. 

Based in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, the Braithwaite brothers are presently remodeling a 1993 Ford F-150 pick-up truck  and converting it into the shape of an enormous banana on wheels (progress photo at right).  When completed it will feature a bright yellow skin exterior.

One of their planned routes would start in Pennsylvania and take them through New York to Southampton (England), Chunell to France, Italy, Austria. Slovenia, Bosnia to Bulgaria or Hungary, Romania to Bulgaria, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan. Across the Caspian Sea to Turkmenistan. Uzbekistan and then either Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan or Tajikistan to the Chinese border and across China and back to the USA.

Along the way, they will be accepting passengers for a donation of $1 or $2 a mile with half of the money going to DVT awareness (Deep Vein Thrombosis).  Sadly, their mother died of DVT on a flight from England to the USA.

For more information about how you can hop a ride on the historic Big Banana Car Drive Around The World (and support a good cause), please visit the Braithwaite brothers at Big Banana Car.

No kidding, today is National Banana Bread Day and it seems that everyone has their favorite recipe.  Here’s ours courtesy of Banana.com.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup toasted walnuts or pecans, chopped
3 ripe, soft, darkly speckled large bananas, mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 large eggs, beaten lightly
6 tablespoons butter, melted then cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation:

Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease bottom only of regular loaf pan, or grease and flour bottom and sides of nonstick 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan.
Combine dry ingredients together in large bowl and set aside.
Mix mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla with wooden spoon in medium bowl.
Lightly fold banana mixture into dry ingredients with rubber spatula until just combined and batter looks thick and chunky.
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan; bake until loaf is golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 55 minutes.
Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack.
Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and store in refrigerator for 4 days, on the counter for 2 days.

Our of readers, Marge, asked, “Our banana trees froze for the first time here in sunny Orlando, Florida. What can we do? Cut them back? Can they be saved?”

It all depends how cold it got and for how long.  If your trees are a good sized clump and it wasn’t cold for that long, there may be enough for the plant to insulate itself.  In that case, let it be and simply clip any dead materials as they develop.  On the other hand, if it got really cold you’ll  need  to cut down the stalk (if the tree survives, new plants will come from the root system, not from the  stalk).  You’ll also need to mulch it heavily.  Placing bales of hay around the plant is a good idea.  Cut the plant half way down the trunk or level to the bales of hay.  If you have pups near the bottom, cut their leaves off and cover the plant with another bale of hay. The banana plant will go into dormancy. In the spring check for growth when night temperatures are above freezing.  Afterwards, remove the bales or unravel them around the plant to decompose as a compost mulch to retain soil moisture for the rest of the year.

In these tough economic times, the banana is proving to be a winner with consumers and investors alike.

“Bananas are a staple and a great value compared with other food items,” said Chiquita CEO Fernando Aguirre, who described the fruit as “recession resistant.”  “A banana sells on average for only 30 cents. Nowhere else in the grocery store can consumers find such a great value.”

Market analysts agreed: “Bananas are a low-cost item for consumers, “said Carla Caselle, analyst with J.P. Morgan, New York.   “People don’t consider not buying bananas.” 

Generally speaking, Ms. Caselle said a recession environment means food sold in supermarkets performs better than food sold in restaurants.

And it appears that the banana may be outselling all of them.

Chiquita Brands International (CQB) stock has rebounded strongly from a low of $8.58 on November 14, 2008 and is currently trading at $14.65 – a rise of 70%.

One of the most popular desserts in America, the Banana Split was invented by David Evans Strickler, a 23-year-old apprentice pharmacist at Tassel Pharmacy in Latrobe, Pennsylvania (also famous as the birthplace of Rolling Rock beer) in 1904.  Strickler created his Banana Split with three scoops of ice cream (vanilla, chocolate and strawberry) on a halved banana topped off with chocolate, marshmallow, nuts, whipped cream, and a cherry (he also commissioned a local glass company to create a long, narrow dish to accommodate a banana).  The price for the Banana Split triple sundae was 10 cents, twice the price of other sundaes, but it immediately became popular with students of Saint Vincent College.  News of the sundae spread regionally and Strickler eventually bought the pharmacy, renaming it Strickler’s Pharmacy.

Wilmington, Ohio also claims their city as the birthplace of the Banana Split. In 1907, restaurant owner Ernest Hazard staged an employee contest to create a new sundae to attract students from nearby Wilmington College.  Employee creativity was low and Hazard ended up splitting a banana lengthwise and piling ice cream on top with whipped cream, sliced strawberries, crushed nuts, shaved chocolate, and a maraschino cherry.  Wilmington celebrates Hazard’s concoction every June with a Banana Split Festival.

Much credit for the national popularity of the Banana Split goes to Walgreen’s drug stores.  Founder Charles Rudolph Walgreen adopted the Banana Split as the chain’s signature dessert in the late 1920’s.

Traditional Banana Split Recipe:
1/2 cup scoop vanilla ice cream
1/2 cup scoop chocolate ice cream
1/2 cup scoop strawberry ice cream
1 large ripe banana
2 tablespoons chocolate syrup (or Hot Fudge)
2 tablespoons strawberry ice cream topping (or fresh strawberries)
2 tablespoons crushed pineapple
2 tablespoons wet walnut ice cream topping
whipped cream
cherries

Founded in 1976, the International Banana Club Museum boasts a collection of over 17,000 banana collectibles and is the world’s largest banana museum.

Located in Hesperia, California (75 miles northeast of Los Angeles), the International Banana Club Museum is the creation of Ken Bannister – known as Ken Bananaster T.P. (Top Banana) – a former sales manager at the Campbell Soup company. The museum has attracted wide attention including an appearance by Ken on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Displays at the museum include bananas made of brass, glass, lead, wood, plastic, ceramic, cement, soap and gold plated bananas.  Banana pipes, banana trees, pins, charms, belts, magnets, rings, cups, glasses, banana slicers, clocks, musical bananas, banana records, software, knives, and banana lights.  The collection goes on and on including the Michael Jackson Banana and the World’s Only Petrified Banana.  The Guiness Book Of World Records lists the museum as the the “World’s Largest Collection” devoted to any one fruit.

Originally in Altadena, the International Banana Club Museum is now sponsored by the City of Hesperia and is housed in the Harrison Exhibit Center.  The museum is open Tuesdays, Thursdays, and the first Saturday of every month from 9am to 1pm.   Your guide is Top Banana Glen Spears.

International Banana Club Museum
Harrison Exhibit Center
16367 Main Street
Hesperia, CA 92345
(760) 244-5488 
www.bananaclub.com

Most Americans would be surprised to know that the banana their ancestors came to know and love is not the same banana they purchase in the supermarket.  The banana of yesterday was the Michel Gros (Big Mike) – a much tastier and larger variety than the Cavendish banana seen in American markets today. 

Americans, who eat as many bananas as apples and oranges combined, have been enjoying the world’s most popular fruit since the late 1800’s when the United Fruit Company (known today as Chiquita) began clearing rain forests in Latin American, building railroads, opening communication networks and inventing refrigeration techniques to control ripening and get the banana to American households as quickly as possible.

In the early 1900’s the fungus called the Panama disease (also known as Fusarium Wilt) began to devastate banana plantations in Latin America (the 1923 musical hit “Yes, We Have No Bananas” was inspired by dwindling stock of Michel Gros bananas).   By the 1960’s the Michel Gros banana had practically become extinct, it had disappeared from American markets and the banana industry was on the verge of bankruptcy.  In a fit of desperation, growers turned to the Cavendish, a Vietnamese variety previously considered too small, less tasty and too easy to bruise for transport.  However, the Cavandish was superior to the Michel Gros in one way – it was immune to the Panama disease and this inferior banana saved the entire industry.

Today, a new and more virulent strain of the Panama disease, called Tropical Race 4 (TR4), has begun to ravage the banana industry.  It emerged in the Philippines in the 1990s and has spread to northern Australian and China.  The Cavendish banana is not immune to TR4 and the fungus is expected to invade Latin American plantations in five to ten years.

Latin American producers appear to be slow in raising the red flag.  Fernando Aguirre, CEO of the world’s largest banana producer Chiquita Brands International, says the threat is very low. “We believe it is a very limited threat and would take many, many years to spread even if it does move out of Asia,” he said. “We believe that it is very limited and we are doing all we can to pre-empt and prepare.”

Will the Cavendish banana eventually go the way of the Michel Gros?  Only time will tell, but it will be interesting to see if a new, and hopefully tastier banana than the Cavendish, will dominate the American market in the future.

Bananamania has gripped Japan.   The banana craze started in March with the publication of  the Morning Banana Diet by a pharmacist in Osaka which claimed that consuming only bananas and room temperature water for breakfast fuelled weight loss regardless of what was eaten during the rest of the day.

Supermarkets in Tokyo and Osaka have reported that sales of bananas have increased as much as 70% with some stores completely sold-out of bananas by early afternoon.  “It’s the first time bananas have been quite so scarce,” a spokesman for Dole Japan Company, the largest banana importer in the country, told Japanese media.

The bottom line is to have a banana for breakfast.  Here are the basic rules:

Have a banana for breakfast
* You can have more than one, but only if you really feel the need
* Eat only raw, uncooked, unfrozen bananas. You can’t have milk, coffee, yogurt or anything else with it
       
Have anything you want for lunch and dinner 
* You must have already eaten your dinner by 8 p.m. (6 p.m. is the ideal time to have dinner)
* There are no limits on the amount of food you can eat, you can also have fried food
* You must not eat sweets before and after your meals

Drink only water   
* The only beverage allowed for almost all your meals is water, it is better if it is mineral or filtered
* Water must be at room temperature, not chilled, or hot
* Water should be taken in small sips and must not be used to wash down food
* There is no quota of water to drink, but you should not drink it excessively
* On social occasions you may drink beer or wine

Eat your food slowly   
* Chew your banana and your food thoroughly and be mindful of its taste

You may have an afternoon snack
* At around 3 p.m. you may eat a sweet snack (chocolate, cookies or a similar snack)
* Ice cream, donuts and potato chips are not recommended
* You could have fresh fruit for your snack, but if you really want a sweet you should have it
* Some Japanese eat a filling, fist-sized rice ball (onigiri) instead of their afternoon sweet if they are particulary hungry
* If you are still hungry, after dinner you may have a second snack of fresh fruit, but this should not become a habit

Go to bed by midnight
* If possible, go to bed earlier

Exercise only if you desire
* Put no pressure on yourself to exercise
* If you want to exercise, go ahead, but do only what doesn’t stress you

Keep a Banana Morning Diet journal
* Because the Morning Banana Diet was developed on the internet, many Japanese that succeeded on losing weight naturally documented their daily food intake and progress online via blogs, forums, or social networking services, and they felt this gave them extra support.

Legislators in the Philippines are lobbying for their growers to produce and export more bananas to help replenish dwindling Japanese stocks.

Hindu.com has reported that scientists at the Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology (CSAUAT), Kanpur claim to have developed a new variety of banana with less sugar content for diabetics. “In the new variety, we have successfully controlled the conversion process of starch into glucose, which is a natural phenomenon in fruits containing starch (carbohydrate),” senior agro-scientist at CSAUAT G.S. Gaur said.

In the newly developed banana variety, the conversion takes at such a slow pace that there is no considerable rise in glucose level of diabetics eating these bananas, he explained. The sugar content apart, all vital ingredients of normal bananas are intact in the new variety, said the scientist. “Like its counterparts, the newly developed banana variety is rich in vitamin-B and C, phosphorus, calcium and iron,” said Gaur.

Asked about the concentration of sugar content in the new banana variety, he said: “As the banana variety is still in an experimental stage, it would not be feasible to say anything on this.” It would take another six months for the variety to be released for commercial use, he said. However, unlike 100 gram of ordinary banana, which normally has 650 calories, the same quantity of the new banana variety contains considerably lower calories.

India is the world’s largest banana producer (Ecuador is the largest exporter) with a 23 per cent share of world production (48.9 million tons.)   In addition to the popular Cavendish variety sold in the US and UK,  India produces a host of different varieties including red bananas, Rattail and Nentran.