KEEP BANANAS LONGER BY HANGING THEM

The best way to keep bananas for a long time is to make sure they are in a cool, dry place (not on top of the fridge) and to 'hang' them, rather than to lay them on a flat surface or in a bowl. There are actually little 'banana stands' built for this purpose that you can place on the countertop and then hang the bananas over the hook on the top. We've always had luck simply taking a piece of twine about 12" long, tying a knot in it to form a big loop, then stringing the banans over the loop and hanging the loop from a cup hook under the cabinet so that the bananas are suspending over the counter top.

The reason that bananas will keep longer if they are hanging is that when they hang, the gases that are given off during the ripening process can escape away from the banana; when these gases are trapped in the vicinity of the banana, like when the bananas are sitting in a bowl, they speed the ripening process. That's why you can put a banana in a paper bag with other fruit (especially peaches and avocados) to hasten the ripening process of the other fruit.