Showing posts with label bananas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bananas. Show all posts

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Dumpster Run with the Bike Trailer!

Impressive! We estimate that we brought home 200 pounds of food today from the IGA dumpster. Haiden had a box on the rack of his bike, and I had two panniers plus a FULL TRAILER! The bicycle trip home took a looong time.

Feels like it was worth it... likely we will be feeding 60 people tomorrow. For sure we will let them know where the food came from so they can make their own choices, but as you know if you read this blog, the food is 100% good, much of it organic.

This is what we brought home. Click to enlarge for a close up of all the goodness! Sorry I couldn't fit all the bananas in the picture.



Oh, and here is a link to information about the Workshops we are hosting tomorrow!
The Vancouver Collective House Network presents
A Day of Workshops about Collective Houses

Saturday, October 17, 2009

What is wrong with the world?

Voila Ben and Michael and... some more bananas.
This time an ENTIRE BIN was full of bananas.
I did what I could and filled all bags and loaded them high on my bike! Wizzzz...



These bananas are not over ripe. They are not bruised. They are not singles...

I wonder, is this an example of LOOKS-ISM? ...Where things that look better are privileged in our society? I mean, maybe these bananas are not uniform enough in length or shape? Maybe they are still a bit green? Maybe there was a better looking shipment that came in to steal centerstage under luscious lighting on the banana display in the produce isle near you.

I have heard that cute babies get more attention right from the start, getting more love, opportunities, food, etc.

Question: When you shop do you choose the prettiest vegetables, the ones in the absolute best condition? Or, what if you are shopping at the Farmers' Market and the food was grown by a farmer near you? Might you choose more unsightly produce, or do you still search for the nicest, best, freshest and most perfect? What kind of an impact do these choices have on our larger food system?

So, I can say that the fried banana's were delicious (thanks Travis), and the vegan banana pancakes also (thanks Ben). Michael is enjoying his banana health shakes. And well... maybe there will be more bananas in the bins soon! At this rate yum yum YUM!

It is a treat eating bananas these days. We never bought them before.

Why?

Bananas travel way too far to be environmentally benign, and we've all heard about the insane industrial production practices... things like sterile workers paid nothing to dip their hands in burning oil, pesticides, bags filled with foremaldehide killing pests, bananas ripening on schedule, and trucks driving through long nights, burning diesel, ripping up the I-5 to dump their loads in the garbage outside the grocery story.

Ah... thanks for the rant.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

dehydrating bananas

When you rescue a lot of bananas from the bins, what do you do with all of those bananas? One fun thing to do is dehydrate them. They make really yummy snacks to take on trips, hiking, bike touring. Tastes like candy. Really.

Here's how we do it. (Dehydrator required.)

1) Peel back one side of the banana.











2) Slice lengthwise. Use a butter knife for this or be really careful you don't slice your fingers.











3) Lay the strips out on the dehydrator trays.











4) Sprinkle on cinnamon.
(or get crazy with nutmeg, or cayenne, or salt)











5) Dehydrate for about 8 hrs at 58C/135F.
Here's what they look like when they are done.
Sweet and chewy.