There are thousands of uses for bananas, other than just eating them. For instance a ship manufacturer has been known to use bananas to grease the rails on which their newly constructed ships are launched due to the environmental dangers of using petroleum greases. I have yet to find a recipe, but in Africa I have read they brew beer from bananas. Obviously anything as sweet as a ripe banana has sufficient sugar to distill alcohol. In addition to the fruit being edible, other parts of the plant are used in recipes in the Philippines and other Asian countries: the stalk, the flowers, the leaves, .... Hobbiests may familiar with banana oil. Banana oil is used to treat the fabric from which model airplane wings are made. And I'm sure, anyone who has grown bananas has discovered, the sap from freshly cut leaves makes an excellent dye (stain) for cotton clothes. If the sap from the freshly cut leaves is allowed to dry on your clothing, it will produce a permanent brown stain, resistant to every cleaning solution I have tried. I recommend wearing brown clothing while working around any banana plants. And of course bananas are used in making breads, pies, puddings and liqueurs. I am accumulating a massive collection of banana recipes. When your trees finally produce fruit, you will desperately be looking for ways to utilize 65 pounds of fruit as well.

Updated 8/29/99.