Bananas!

 

Bet you've always wanted to know how a banana gets from the tree to your breakfast cereal!  Well, we're going to show you. Here's Terri lifting up the plastic that's placed, for some unknown reason, around the gigantic clusters of bananas.  She's doing this to demonstrate that they are really there so you'll know we aren't just making this story up.

They go to this washing station on a strong pulley thingy (which is shown---out of place---several pictures down).  At this point, they're also sorted somehow---you can see rejects on the ground on the left.  I guess the workers take these home for their own corn flakes.

Not exactly vine ripened, are they?

Terri asked if there were some kind of chemicals in this water and was answered Yes.  Someone told us it was to kill bugs.  

Here's the pulley bringing in the clusters of bananas, which by this time are  separated by pieces of paper into smaller bunches, as you can see.

Putting stickers on each bunch.  Not Dole or Chiquita though---didn't recognize the brand.

Here they're put into boxes and loaded into the truck.  Then they are shipped to your grocery store, where you buy them and bring them home for breakfast.  Here, however, they eat them any time of day, frequently cooked.  We had grilled bananas in Salinas.  There are also thinly sliced green plaintains which are fried and salted (and delicious!), but plaintains are really another fruit.  They sure look like steroidal bananas, though.