2006年NPR美国国家公共电台四月-Easter Can Be a Tough Time for Bananas

Michele Norris: With Passover and Easter upon us, it's that time of year when you think of matzos and chocolate bunnies. But in Central America, they are thinking about bananas. At banana plantations 2, it's a tough time of the year. It's Semana Santa or Holy Week, and plantation 1 workers take time off to celebrate. The problem is they either anticipate the week off and pick the bananas early, in which case the fruit is too green, or they wait and pluck the fruit when they return, too late and too yellow. In reading the Miami Herald 3 this morning, we learned that there is a science to ripening 5 bananas. And now we are gonna talk to one of the masters. His name is Pat Foster, and his official title is Director of Ripening for Chiquita Brands International, the paper actually referred to him as the banana gasman. We'll explain that in just a minute. But first, Mr. Foster, thanks so much for being with us.

Pat Foster: Oh, thank you very much for having me.

Michele Norris: So, you are the person who actually determines if the bananas that you see at the local grocery store are a nice, ripe shade of yellow or some various shade of green? How do you actually do that?

Pat Foster: Well, I have a staff of ripeners throughout the country actually that I oversee 6. And we use a specific recipe to obtain the color.

Michele Norris: A recipe?

Pat Foster: That's, that's the best way to describe it.

Michele Norris: So, how, what, you, you expose the bananas to some sort of gas. (Yes). I guess that's where your name comes in.

Pat Foster: Yes, actually it's a natural product. You know, when you hear the word 'gas', everybody gets very nervous. But actually it's, it's alcohol, that's atomized and turned into ethylene. And ethylene is a, is a product that is produced by the fruit naturally when it's in its ripening state. So, basically, what we are doing is, ur, giving this full room of fruit the message "Hey, it's the time to start ripening" by exposing it to ethylene.

Michele Norris: So you talked about that recipe. I guess the ingredients there are time, temperature, and the length of exposure. How, how do you get that just right?

Pat Foster: Well, it's basically something that the ripener has to learn from experience, it's not something that you do by the numbers. You receive the product, you do an inspection 7 of the product, you cut it open, you smell it, you look at the peel-to-pulp separation and you determine the freshness of the fruit. And then you develop a procedure to ripen 4 that product, so that it will be acceptable to the consumer.

Michele Norris: So since you are the man whose finger rides that dial and determines how much gas you actually use in the ripening process. What's the right shade, what color should they be when they leave your warehouse 8?

Pat Foster: We like to see fruit at retail 9, that is, on the shelf, a nice good amount, more yellow than green, and just with green tips or green necks on the fruit.

Michele Norris: So, would that be sort of a canary yellow, the color of sort of a yellow post it pad?

Pat Foster: Canary yellow would be a good description.

Michele Norris: And how do you deal with this Semana Santa, this Holy Week slowdown in Latin America?

Pat Foster: Well, we, we try to bring in as much product as we can prior to the holidays, and then right after the holidays, we'll have more product arriving.

Michele Norris: But if it comes in too early, it might be too green, if it comes in too late...

Pat Foster: Well, that's where the skill of ripener comes in, he has to know how to process the fruit to compensate 10 for that.

Michele Norris: So, you, you are an expert in this. If you bring home bananas, and they are a little, little bit too green for your liking 11, what's the best way to get them to just the right color once they actually are in your kitchen, home from the grocery store?

Pat Foster: What I usually do if they are a little too green, I will put them into a brown paper bag, not a plastic bag. And if there is an apple, a nice, ripe apple around, I'll put that in the bag with it. And then the ethylene that's being produced from the apple will help to trigger the fruit to continue its ripening process.

Michele Norris: Well, Mr. Foster, thanks so much.

Pat Foster: Thank you very much.

Michele Norris: That's Pat Foster, Director of North America Ripening for Chiquita Brands International.

NOTE------------
Passover: a Jewish religious holiday when people remember the escape of the Jews from Egypt;逾越节, 逾越节祭神的羔羊
matzo: a large thin piece of flat bread, eaten by Jewish people during Passover;犹太逾越节薄饼
ripener: 催熟剂
canary yellow: 淡黄色