Banana Art

Growing up did your mother ever tell you that you couldn't have a cookie until you've had a piece of fruit or a vegetable? Or maybe you tell that to your kids. Anyone can choke down a less appealing piece of healthy food if they have a dessert waiting for them once they swallow. But when no dessert is promised, how can you get someone to each a more healthy, less exciting morsel? The answer is banana art.

Change the outside to more interesting and the inside will be more appealing - at least this is what Sharon and Joanie learned in their fruit marketing at the 3rd Place(the coffee shop where I now work twice a week). If they put bananas in a bowl and sell them along with the cookies, coffee, and pastries, the bananas would sit there until they turned brown. But decorate the peel with colored-marker works of art - pictures and witty sayings - and the response is a laugh and "I'll take one of those." For who could resist a banana with "Apples are for sissies," "Leg spasms be gone," "Still cheaper than a gallon of gas," or a line of gymnastically inclined stick figures brightly drawn on the side? So the next time you are trying to tempt yourself or your kids or anyone else with a less than saliva-stimulating banana - try some banana art. It's sure to be ap"peal"ing!