In a world dominated by Cavendish, it is unusual (around here anyway) to find other varieties of bananas. The Co-Op store down the street was selling these mini bananas on the weekend, so I bought a few along with some regular ones. A bit of searching on the net suggests that they are Lady Finger bananas, and the descriptions I found match my own experience with them. They have thin skins, and are sweeter and more flavourful than the Cavendish variety.

A couple of sites I have read suggest letting these ripen more than you would a Cavendish and wait until the skin is actually brown. I've had a couple of them at this ripeness, so I may leave the last two to ripen more for the sake of comparison. Right now I consider alternate varieties like this a treat, but given the extreme monoculture of modern banana production, and the seemingly unstoppable fungus that is threatening to wipe them out, these may be the norm in a few years.

A couple of sites I have read suggest letting these ripen more than you would a Cavendish and wait until the skin is actually brown. I've had a couple of them at this ripeness, so I may leave the last two to ripen more for the sake of comparison. Right now I consider alternate varieties like this a treat, but given the extreme monoculture of modern banana production, and the seemingly unstoppable fungus that is threatening to wipe them out, these may be the norm in a few years.