Culinary Tidbits . . . A Brazilian researcher, Gustavo Castro from São Paulo State University, has found that banana peels can take heavy metals out of polluted water. They tested them on water polluted with copper and lead from Brazil’s Paraná River and the peels performed as well or better than other filtering agents such as silica or carbon. In addition, they could be used up to 11 times before they gave up as purifiers. However, keep in mind that they will not eliminate bacteria from water!

Also, avoid artificially ripened bananas using Carbide. Here is the way that you can tell: Bananas which are ripened naturally are dark yellow and there are small black spots here and there on the bananas and the stalks are black, while those that are forced ripe with Carbide are lemon yellow and their stalks are green and are clear yellow without any black spots. Carbide is a chemical that if mixed with water, emits heat and bananas that are dipped in this mixture ripen artificially.