When I was a child in small town Minnesota (<1000 population), one of the 3(!) groceries in town ordered way too many bananas. Mom got a heck of deal on two boxes, which with 6 kids might have seemed reasonable.
We could eat as many as we wanted. Then we could invite our friends to eat as many as they wanted. Unsurprisingly, our rate of consumption began to drop, and we asked for anything else as a break.
We were offered:
a pear - as in a pair of bananas
a plum - a plumb ripe banana (they were getting long in the tooth)
a pair of plums - 2 plumb ripe bananas
And of course the freezer was full of banana bread.
Unripe banana goes well in a curry, or stew, as an alternative to potato. Roast bananas on a grill make a sweet dessert. Mashed banana and peanut butter sandwiches are suprisingly good (albeit, a bit weird)
It is quite a versatile fruit, being both sweet and starchy.
The small grocery store near where I once lived once had a box of ripe bananas listed at a giveaway price. I took the whole box and spent an afternoon making banana bread, wrapping up and freezing several loaves for later.
My banana story? My parents went to Hawaii ten or twenty years ago with another couple. As they were leaving, they had a bunch of bananas but at the airport were told that they were not allowed to bring them on the flight. So my father and his friend sat down at the checkpoint and each ate four or five bananas. (Throwing them out was, of course, not a possibility,)
When I was young, I was taught not to put bananas in the fridge because they’d turn black. Later in life I learned yes, the skins turn black, but the fruit inside is preserved much longer at pretty much the same ripeness/sweetness you stored them at. You can refrigerate them right at your preferred taste. They still don’t last forever, of course, and will go more quickly than other fruits and vegetables. I see nobody mentioning that fact, maybe some people here thought your bananas must be consumed quickly. Use your fridge.
Here is a twenty-minute video on the logistics of getting bananas from the plantation to the port and hence to the store in the US. It is quite the process even involving using their own ships – regular freighters’ schedules aren’t reliable enough. I found it fascinating.
If you feel a soft spot starting to develop on an organge, throw’er right away into the fridge, halting any further degeneration (for almost a week longer, from my experience)
I almost always get at least a week of grace time. After that, it’s iffy. Much better than the day or two you usually get after they hit the optimum peak ripeness.