Gassing bananas.

I'm at the grocery store today and they have a little bin of bananas labeled "no gas." They look to me about the same as most of the bananas in New England grocery stores: they're bright green and hard as rocks. And since they're the same price as bananas not labeled "no gas" (which I take to mean gassed) I buy a few, on the principle that in the food world these days "no" is good.

So now I need apples, it appears.

Bananas need exposure to a naturally occurring gas called ethylene in order to ripen properly. Homeowners can "gas" their own bananas by placing them in an airtight plastic bag with several apples, which naturally emit the gas.

Yeah, right. Apples and bags. That sounds a little weird to me. How do the monkeys do it, I'm wondering. Or, wait, maybe I don't want to know.

Anyway, plantains are next.