Ideally people should have the education to eat seasonally. My parents and grandparents knew what varieties of different vegetables for example were best eaten fresh vs those to be preserved , canned etc.
Sure a lot of us know that a Brandywine tomato is the best fresh eating(my opinion) and you should make sauce out of san marzano. Same applies to many traditional vegetable staples and don't even get me started on greens which are all good and have 3 seasons(you can harvest for four seasons in a cold frame or with a root cellar).
The thing is all this is being lost due to mass media/ marketing and the general dumbing down of all. Check the wiki for a list of banana varieties. I've only eaten maybe 5 in my whole life, the GM in the 60's, probably a couple of cavendish varieties, the finger bananas sold at latin markets and one labeled organic from Ecuador that ripened an off green color(this has been the best so far since the demise of the Gros Michel).
Unfortunately big business will ultimately control all of this for the masses. Personally , I'm heading out after this to actually TALK to the friends I've met at the farmers market for this weeks vegetables and cheese. Yesterday I bought 6 months worth of organically raised Angus sent from a farmer friend from Pennsylvania. There's 4 types of tomatoes in the garden.
Unless small scale banana growers can get there different bananas out to the public and find them accepted and desireable, you'll only see gran nain etc on the shelves for the rest of your life. But things CAN change, Burpee started selling Brandywines during the 90's when the heirloom tomato craze began. How do you do this with bananas, educate the public and let people know what they're missing. one at a time if that's what it takes. Eventually someone will give them some media attention. If Burpee can go back to their roots with tomatoes Why not Chiquita , Dole, or more likely Bonita with bananas?
