Dear Kid,

There are people who don’t like bananas (although there aren’t that many of them since bananas are the most consumed fruit in the world). There are puppies who don’t like bananas although Booker isn’t one of them. I had a friend whose dog used to eat banana peels and crayons and poop banana peel rainbows. This is (generally) not a good use of banana peels. So I investigated a little further to see if there are good uses of banana peels, and according to my friend the internet, there are numerous uses for the inside of a banana peel. I think my friend the internet got a little over committed on this topic.

• Rubbing the inside of a banana peel on a mosquito bite (or other bug bite) or on poison ivy will help keep it from itching and getting inflamed. If you rub the inside of a banana peel on a scrape or burn, it will help the pain go away, keep the swelling down, and keep the wound from getting infected. Just my luck to almost never want a banana right after I’ve been stung or burned.
• If you rub the inside of a small piece of banana peel on a wart every night, the potassium can make the wart disappear in one to two weeks. At the moment, I am wart-less, so unable to test this.
• To whiten teeth naturally, rub the inside of a banana peel on your teeth for about two minutes every night. If you gargle with salt water, this will heighten the effect. Expect results in about two weeks. It works because of the effect of the potassium, magnesium, and manganese in the banana peel.
• Rubbing a banana peel on your forehead can help cure a headache. (Imho, this sounds stupid.)
• Bananas and banana peels make great fertilizer (you can compost them, bury them whole, or cut them in small pieces and mix them with garden soil) because of their phosphorous and potassium content. Roses especially like them. This is quite true. It may be the only useful bit in this list.
• Rubbing the inside of a banana peel on houseplant leaves makes the leaves shiny. So does a damp cloth.
• Banana peels also make a good silver polish—just rub silver with the inside of a peel and then buff with a cloth. I just happen to have a piece of silver that needs polishing. So I grabbed the peel from Dad’s breakfast banana to try this. It’s hooey. Just hooey. The plate looks exactly the the same before and after banana peel rubbing. Except for bits of banana which I had to wipe off.

Great Banana Song #3

The Great Banana Peel Summary: Feed your banana peels to the roses or the compost. Otherwise, just leave them on the bananas.

Love, Mom