Ripening Time

In Ripening Time: Inside Stories for Aging with Grace, Sherry Ruth Anderson presents a new perspective on aging. In her latest book, the bestselling author of The Feminine Face of God and The Cultural Creatives invites the reader to engage the aging process through the art of inner inquiry. She guides us beyond our culture's mind traps through stories where elders face into the lies, the losses and endings, the tender and bittersweet and ferocious truths of growing old. Giving us an indispensable compass, she shows how growing into old age can be a fruition, the genuine grace and gift of human ripening.

The technology used to ripen bananas is affected by a wide range of factors, including the cultivar, growing conditions, harvesting method, and maturity at which the fruit are harvested and handled. Various post harvest treatments applied to fruit can also impact ripening. While many textbooks have been dedicated to Musa (bananas and plantains), none have focused exclusively on the ripening process. The commercial ripening of bananas and the chemical changes that occur thereby are considered here in detail. In developed, temperate countries where bananas are imported, successful ripening technologies have evolved. Most bananas, however, are marketed locally in the country where they are grown, and often the ripening technologies used have economic and health implications. This brief offers an in-depth discussion of not only the implications of these technologies, but also of alternative ripening methods and their commercial applications. For an understanding of both the chemical basis by which bananas ripen and the technologies used to control the process, look no further than this essential text.