Froot! It confuses me.

[tzikeh]

I know nothing about fruit. I mean, I know I *like* fruit, but that's the sum total of my knowledge.

This is not a joke. Mock now, get it out of your system.

Finished?

Right.

Yesterday, I bought:

apples
bananas
grapefruit
plums
peaches
cherries
strawberries
blackberries
raspberries
blueberries

• Which of these continue to ripen *after* you buy them (I know about bananas)?
  
• Which must be refrigerated, and which can be left out in the classic "fruit bowl"?
  
• Which rot quickly, and which can hang out for a while?
  
• When fruit shopping, what do you *look for* when you want to see if these fruits are ripe?
  
• What should I know about pears, or melons, or other things? With the "global" market, do we really still have "seasons" for fruit?

No, my parents never taught me anything about food, and I've lived on "food that comes in cans", "food that comes in bags", and "food that comes forty-five minutes after I place an order over the phone" for (counts...) nineteen years, give or take.

Coming soon to an lj near you: Chikkin! It confuses me.

Comments

[athena4lynn.livejournal.com]

I am hardly an except, and I still live at home, but I can tell you the following:

1) in my house we refrigerate all those things except bananas, which do, indeed continue to ripen. Although, I have seen that people keep apples, and plums and peaches out - although I find apples get sort of mushy if they're out too long

2) Your berries (especially the raspberries and blackberries) are going to be nitpicky - they go bad quickly, at least in my experience. Strawberries last a little longer, as I would imagine do blueberries, although I'm not 100% certain of that.

I can't really answer the rest of your questions, because I don't do my own shopping - although some fruits still do have seasons. You'll find that non-local fruit is more expensive (ie. raspberries out of 'season' are pricey, and go down a bit during the summer)

Errrm.. hope this helps!!

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

It does! All answers help. This way, if I get lots of comments, I'll have a "fruit reference post" to refer to.

[luminosity]

Apples are long lasting. You should (can) refrigerate everything except the bananas. Peaches? Unless you get them ripe? They don't get ripe. They just get soft.

You can freeze grapes and smaller berries and eat them like candy.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

You can freeze grapes and smaller berries and eat them like candy.

Oh my God that sounds AWESOME! I'm going to try that.

[loreleif.livejournal.com]

After you freeze them, you can also stick them in a bowl, sprinkle sugar over them, add enough milk to cover and mix. Keep mixing for a little while. Instant ice cream! Well, sort of a slush, but a really yummy one!

[thecomfychair.livejournal.com]

I have to second this. Frozen grapes are a thing of wonder and deliciousness.

[vrya.livejournal.com]

I have not the wide-range of fruit tastes, so I can't comment on all, but bananas I leave in the bowl, and try to eat quickly as they tend to be gone to banana-bread territory in about 3-4 days in VA summers. Strawberries go in the fridge, and I don't know how long they last because they are always gone by the 2nd day. Yum. Apples I think can go in the bowl and last for quite a while, but I like the taste when they're cool, so I keep them in the fridge. Where they seem to linger for a week or two with no ill effect. I think they're the most long-lived, everything else is going to be a week at most, and probably half a week for the berries. So that is pretty much the sum total of my knowledge! Except: there's a small farmer's market about a mile north of my new place, so perhaps I will acquire some new wisdom there in a few weeks!

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

I always refrigerate berries; they go bad too quickly otherwise. Cherries ditto. The other things you mentioned, I keep in a fruit bowl, or several. :-)

I mostly gauge ripeness by touch; I try to buy, for instance, a peach that's ripe to the touch (gives beneath my fingers, etc) alongside a few that aren't quite ripe yet (still too firm) so they can ripen over time in my bowl.

Do we still have seasons for fruit? I think so, for some things anyway. I don't buy berries out of season (e.g. strawberries are a June thing; blueberries, late July and all of August) and I try to buy local. Peaches and plums, I buy non-local ones for the first half of the summer and local ones at the end of the summer -- I just love them too much in summertime to not-eat them. (But there's nothing like buying a bushel of fresh local peaches in August and eating them in every way -- fresh, on cereal, over ice cream, on shortcake, by the fistful -- just kind of overdosing on them, because when they're fresh, they're so absurdly good.)

Apples, too, have a season. Well -- some variants are designed to last through the winter and still be good in spring. But most of the ones I eat, I eat in the fall when they're fresh and local.

It's also possible I'm a freak about this because after a childhood in Texas, I'm totally enamored of living now in a place where there are seasons and foods have seasons.

(That said -- I totally buy lettuces and cucumbers and even zucchini all winter, even though they don't grow here then. So I'm not a stickler for any of it; I just find that fresh, local, in-season fruit is so good that it makes me not want to eat the stuff from Chile and New Zealand.)

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I mostly gauge ripeness by touch; I try to buy, for instance, a peach that's ripe to the touch (gives beneath my fingers, etc) alongside a few that aren't quite ripe yet (still too firm) so they can ripen over time in my bowl.

Okay - but how do you know that the give beneath your fingers = "ripe", not "about to totally be dead" -- and now I have one vote for "peaches continue to ripen after you buy them" and one for "peaches do not continue to ripen after you buy them".

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

You know, I'm not sure I can quantify the good kind of give-beneath-the-fingers and the overripe kind, except by touch, which obviously doesn't translate well to screen. Maybe next time you pick up peaches, get two that feel very different, and when you get home cut them open to see what they're like on the inside and how they taste?

:-)

btw, one of my favorite things to do with fruit -- if I'm not going to eat it fresh -- is this berry buckle, which can easily be made with other fruits. It's easy and amazingly tasty.

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

Oh, and -- do you drink? I can't remember whether you drink. Well, if you do -- one of my favorite things to do with berries is this:

Take, say, a quart of fresh strawberries. Halve them and cut off their stems. Put them in a decanter of some kind and pour a bottle of vodka over them. (Can be cheap vodka. Does not need to be good vodka. Trust me on this.) Over the course of 2 or 3 days, the vodka will turn bright red, and the berries will turn oddly pale. Decant the vodka and save it; toss the berries, which are now disgusting. (They have transferred their essential berriness to the vodka.) The vodka can be frozen and will keep forever (and now that it has fruit juice in it, it will freeze, FYI) and it tastes amazing -- like the most concentrated, mindblowing, delicious essence of strawberry, especially on a snowy winter night.

Same can be done with peaches, raspberries, and slices of peeled ginger root (in the case of ginger, the vodka doesn't change color per se, but it becomes very spicy.) Cherries work beautifully, color-wise, but the resulting cherry vodka tastes oddly medicinal to me.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

IMO, it's all about the smell.

It takes practice, but eventually you should be able to distinguish the bright, almost floral fragrance of a ripe peach from the almost alcoholic, too-rich fragrance of an over-ripe one.

I put only berries in the fridge, and in an ideal world wouldn't refrigerate even them. Chilling fruits robs them of a good deal of their flavor, so I generally buy only as much fruit as I can eat over two or three days.

In my experience, all stone fruits will continue to ripen in a bowl if your kitchen is relatively warm, but of course they're best when picked ripe. If you can get to a farmer's market, you'll taste the best fruit of your life.

[siegeofangels.livejournal.com]

Hi! I, um, friendsfriends. *handwave*

- The plums and peaches will ripen after you buy them, so wait to eat them until they're a little soft when you squeeze them gently. All the others (except the bananas) should be ripe when you buy them.

- I would refrigerate the cherries and the berries; the others should be okay at room temp unless you want to keep them for a while. The bananas are the only ones that you SHOULDN'T refrigerate--they'll turn black.

- In my experience, berries will go bad the quickest, so make sure they're in the fridge and dry--if you wash them ahead of time, they're more likely to go icky, so just wash the ones you're going to eat. If you find yourself with a bunch of berries you can't eat in time, wash them, squash them with a potato masher and freeze them in a freezer bag. Then you can put the squished berries on waffles later. Apples and citrus fruits should last for a while, although check that they're not getting moldy; peaches and plums you'll have several days on before they're ripe, and then a couple of days before they're OVERripe.

- When shopping: things that should always be ripe are citrus fruits, apples, and little fruits like grapes, cherries, and berries. Those are all pretty much grab and go. Peaches and plums are ripe when they yield to gentle pressure--squeeze them just a little, and the softer they are the riper they are. You'll want them a little soft but not completely squashy. You can of course buy them when they're not-quite-ripe and let them soften at home.

- Pears: same rules as peaches and plums. I don't know as much about melons as I should, but I think a rule of thumb is that the stem end should be a little soft and the melon should smell melon-y.

- As far as "seasons" for fruit, yes! there still are seasons, because while you can get strawberries in December, they're probably flown in from somewhere really far away and bred to travel, and not as delicious as more local ones.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Hi! I, um, friendsfriends. *handwave*

Hi! *iconwave*

All the others (except the bananas) should be ripe when you buy them.

How do you know when these things are ripe? What do you look for / smell / etc.?

[siegeofangels.livejournal.com]

Oh, sorry, I worded that awkwardly. I meant that if you find berries/cherries/grapes/apples/citrus in the store, they will be ripe and you can eat them as soon as you want.

As far as picking out good ones, look for--well, nice-looking fruits with no blemishes or (if they're berries) rotting/moldy bits. If you're getting grapes, check the cut end of the stem: a withered, brown stem means the grapes are kind of old and won't be that great, but if the stem is still green and fresh-looking, the grapes will be delicious and juicy.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

As noted by others, the berries are the most fragile and perishable of the lot, but freezing is a good strategy if you can't eat them all at once. I don't believe they ripen further after picking. Cherries are slightly less perishable and are, of course, celestial; I don't know if they freeze, I've never tried it because in my house they all get eaten immediately. Grapefruit will last a long time, especially if refrigerated, but they don't (I think) get any riper. I am terrible for buying bananas and then letting them go too long, but if you freeze an overripe banana, you can later toss it in the blender with some yogurt and OJ and have a nice smoothie.

Peaches (and nectarines, which I prefer to peaches) are a dicey proposition here in the midwest; they will sometimes, in my experience, continue to ripen, but sometimes they go straight from green to rot. They are so good it's worth the risk, for me.

Ripeness: for citrus fruit (oranges, grapefruit) you want to look for the ones that are heaviest (this should = juiciest). For berries and cherries, try to find trays that have no blemished fruit (remove any blemished or rotting ones ASAP). Ripeness isn't much of an issue for apples; any that show up in the store will be fine for eating.

Melons are more like a whole ... theology, or something (e.g., there are *schools of thought* about how to determine ripeness). I don't much like any melon except watermelon, so I don't worry about it. With watermelon, I usually buy the ones that are already halved or quartered, in which case you look for ones that don't have visible darkening/overripeness around the seeds, but also aren't green/white a significant distance out from the rind.

Seasonality: Not an issue with apples, or (mostly) citrus fruit. It used to be that berries, peaches, nectarines, blueberries, etc., were only available when they were in season, but nowadays you'll find them almost year-round--in winter, they're often flown in from the southern hemisphere. My experience is that it's not worth it to buy the ones out of season, and I console myself by reflecting that part of what makes the nectarine so very sweet is that we can't have it all the time.

[the-shoshanna.livejournal.com]

Refrigerate berries. (Well, you could leave cherries out for a day, if you find them pretty and are planning to eat them after dinner.) The raspberries and blackberries will go bad fastest; eat them within, oh, two or three days. Do not wash any fruit until you're ready to eat it.

Everything else can be left out or not, as you like. I refrigerate apples because I like cold apples -- and then I chop them and put them in hot oatmeal, go figure. If you refrigerate bananas they will turn brown, but they're still okay. People very rarely refrigerate bananas, though. All fruit will keep longer if refrigerated, of course, but if you leave it out it's very pretty and, if it's ripe, it gives off lovely smells.

Bananas will really ripen as they sit, and peaches and plums a bit (but don't buy them underripe and assume they'll ripen to yummyness, whereas buying green bananas is fine). Mangos also ripen on the countertop, for what it's worth. Do not expect anything kept in the fridge to ripen; they need to be room-temperature. I don't know if apples ripen as they sit, but I've never found myself with an underripe apple, so I wouldn't worry about them anyway.

When they're ripe, they will be slightly soft (but not mushy) and have a nice smell. We do have fruit seasons, because local is usually much better for this kind of thing; the varieties that have been bred to survive four thousand miles of air travel prioritize appearance and firmness (meaning toughness, resistance to bruising) over taste. Which doesn't mean you can't get good fruit flown in from Venezuela (or that the farmer's market might not have woody tasteless pears), but overall local and fresh will be better. Also fruit (especially berries) will be much more expensive out of season. (Apples are stored for months and months in neutral atmospheres, so the season matters less; berries have to be sold fresh and have a very short shelf-life. Always check berries, especially raspberries and blackberries, for mold before buying; they can mold in a day.)

Be sure that fruit is not sitting in water on the counter; it will go bad quickly, rotting where it's wet. (Everything I'm saying goes for tomatoes, and I've found nasty rotten spots where room-temp tomatoes were sitting in wetness from condensation or someone's wet hands.) This is why hanging fruit baskets are often wire net: to let air circulate and keep everything dry. Rotten spots can be cut out, though; they won't poison the whole fruit (though of course if they're huge, the remainder may not be worth saving). Always refrigerate cut fruit.

Enjoy!

[zoerayne]

Others have said mostly what I would say, except for this:

Some of the care tips for fruit vary by location!

I have learned, in the move from Colorado to Washington, that plums and peaches ripen and go bad (and moldy!) here much more quickly than in the drier climate I'm used to. I'm going to have to start refrigerating them, I think.

If you want peaches, plums, and nectarines to ripen faster than they are doing (ditto avocados), put them in a paper sack for a day or two, checking on them regularly.

Pears are usually ripe when they're slightly soft to the squeeze, but there's at least one variety (I don't know which, sorry!) that should be eaten when it's still very firm. Maybe someone else knows?

Apples last longer where it's cooler—so a cool, non-sunlit spot or the fridge—but they last pretty long anyway. If you've got too many and you're worried about them going bad, peel and quarter them, pare out the core bits, cut the quarters in half again, and dump them into a pot with some brown sugar and cinnamon (I eyeball it and add to taste later in the cooking process if necessary) and a quarter cup or so of water. Over low-to-medium heat with occasional stirring, they'll cook down into the best home-made applesauce ever, which can be refrigerated or frozen for later.

When I have berries in danger of going bad, I wash them (and slice the strawberries), and put them into baggies with a little sugar. Toss 'em in the fridge for a day, to let them make syrup, then move them to the freezer. Instant pancake/waffle/etc. topping. Ditto for the peaches.

I know nothing about citrus fruit, as it is evil. *g* (Except lemon and lime juice, which actually come straight from the tree to the grocery store in these plastic containers.... *koff*)

As a side note, only buy as many tomatoes as you're going to use pretty immediately, because putting them in the refrigerator is bad and wrong and will give them a mealy texture. And if you don't have good, vine-ripened tomatoes available (during the off-season, for instance), you might as well get canned tomatoes, because they're cheaper and they're just as good as the average factory-farmed off-season tomato. This message was brought to you by the I Am a Tomato Snob committee.

[roga.livejournal.com]

Will try not to repeat what others have already told you:

-I keep Granny Smith apples (the sour green ones) out of the fridge because they stay naturally harder than other kinds. Red apples I'd keep outside for the first few days, and then bring them into the fridge. Also know that when you slice apples they turn brown really, really fast (like avocados), but you can squeeze lemon juice over them to prevent that. (Like, if you're making fruit salad. Or if it's Rosh HaShana, I dunno.)

-Grapefruits, also out of the fridge, and bananas, and all the rest in. I buy bananas very firm, even greenish, because I hate it when they go soft. After a day or two at home they're still firm, ripened into yellow, and perfect.

-I buy a few ripe plums and peaches for today and tomorrow, and a few harder ones for the rest of the week. It doesn't matter how ripe they technically are, really - it depends on your taste. As long as they don't become brown, they're good. (I like super soft peaches, a friend of mine likes them hard, bordering on greenish. Nothing wrong with either.)

-I have no idea how to pick out melons or watermelons: I usually knock on them, pretend I understand about fruit, and either ask the vendor or go with instinct. But watermelon (http://myplateoryours.typepad.com/my_plate_or_yours/images/watermelon_009.jpg) is great summer fruit, and I recommend eating it with small squares of feta/bulgarian cheese.

Everyone here's talking about strawberries in June when I'm used to strawberries in January, so I'll shut up about seasonal fruit. ()

[roga.livejournal.com]

I have no idea how that last link got in there. Um.

[(Anonymous)]

Everybody seems on the ball with the ponying up of their Froot Advice, so I will simply add that you should learn the Chiquita Banana song. Back in the 40s, when United Fruit Company stepped up its importation of the banana, it wanted to comfort parochial/paranoid Americans and teach them to adopt the banana as a regular food.

And so! The Chiquita Banana mascot, and her song!

"I'm Chiquita Banana and I'm here to say,
Bananas have to ripen in a certain way
When they're fleck'd with brown and have a golden hue
Bananas taste the best and are the best for you!
You can put them in a salad!
You can put them in a pie-yi!
Any way you want to eat them
It's impossible to beat them!
But bananas like the climate of the very, very tropical equator
So you should never put bananas! In the refrigerator!"

I can sing this to you upon your request.

Also! As the song suggests, do not be afraid of bananas where the skin has gone flecked-brown, even to a large extent. That's prime Banana Time. Bananas spend most of their leisure time turning starch to sugar (since they can't watch TV), so later in their ripening process they're super tasty.

--Dorinda

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

People seem to have you covered on the ripening/leaving out/rotting issue.

When fruit shopping
apples - look for heavy, firm fruit with no bruises
bananas - I buy these green unless I need them that night
grapefruit - heavy for their size, no open wounds
plums - slightly soft, sweet-smelling
peaches - slightly soft, sweet-smelling
cherries - depends on variety, but generally, slightly soft, sweet-smelling; if a dark variety, I look for some depth of color.
strawberries - dark red! Minimal to no visible mold. Pick over when you get home & separate out any moldy ones (throw out) & soft ones (put in muffins or cook down with sugar and put on pancakes, or something).
blackberries - dark! Treat same as strawberries.
raspberries - deep raspberry color. Treat same as strawberries.
blueberries - blue with whitish cast. Not many green or pale berries. Treat same as strawberries.


Pears: buy pears when flesh yields to gentle pressure. Expect scarring & blemishes on skin, but avoid obviously bruised fruits or fruit with open wounds.

Melons: I am only OK at melon-buying, and mostly I stick to cantalopes. Look for the flesh in-between the netting to be yellow/beige, not green, and the blossom end to smell sweetly melony but not TOO sweet (sign of rot). Melon should be firm, not squishy.

[deaver.livejournal.com]

Everyone has left great tips... my only small addition is don't park your apples near other fruit (particularly bananas, peaches, plums, or nectarines) as they emit a gas which causes other things to ripen. Conversely, if you buy a peach/pear/nectarine/apricot/banana/etc... that is still sort of hard, and you want to use it the following day, place it and a ripened apple (not granny smith - they don't release much gas) into a paper bag together over night and you will have a ripe peach/etc... in the morning.

Fruit is fun!

[unmisha.livejournal.com]

Absolutely there are seasons. You just don't notice them any more in your typical grocery store. I'm a produce snob though. I find there is a substantial, significant difference between store fruit and farmer's market fruit. That, and I'm buying locally, supporting local small farmers instead of giant agribusiness. I start hitting up the farmer's markets in May and start crying in November when even all the apples are gone.

Right now, most of the berries are in season (blackberries have another month-ish to hit their height) and cherries. The larger stone fruits: plum, peach, nectarine have a little ways to ripen, and apples and pears are autumn fruits. I find the biggest quality difference in the apples - I'm in Washington, so grocery store Red Delicious are super bland to me, and I'm spoiled by all the different varieties we have here.

For anyone not in Texas, So Cal or Florida, citrus (lemon, lime, grapefruit) won't be local. Fortunately, it doesn't go bad nearly so fast as some of the berries. Melons are also a southern thing - they need a long growing season, so they tend to like southern climes as well. They also travel well, especially watermelon.

Let's see: apples make things ripen - someone mentioned that already. Don't wash your berries until you're ready to eat them. They will grow fuzz the moment your back is turned.

Honestly, for the best berry experience, spend a day out at a U-pick farm. The farmers are usually more than willing to tell you all about their crop and how to select the best ones, and sun-warmed berries right off the plant/vine are the best things in the world.

If you can find them (they may still be confined to the NW) - try Rainier cherries. They're a beautiful blushing yellow/peach color instead of deepdeep red, and super tasty.

For companion snacking - I love cheese with my apples and pears. Sharper cheeses with strong-tasting apples and softer/milder with pears.

Ok, now I'm hungry.

[j-bluestocking.livejournal.com]

Since everyone has covered so much, here are some things I like which may be peculiar to me:

Strawberries go with champagne. You can feel both decadent and traditional when you enjoy them.

Put raspberries and blueberries in a bowl when they're at peak (this is the season, here in the U.S.) and spread a generous quantity of low-fat or non-fat whipped cream over them. Or if you prefer, put them in vanilla yogurt.

I like to leave peaches and plums out of the fridge; whether you prefer them cool or at room temp is a matter of personal taste. William Carlos Williams clearly liked them cold. I find them more flavorful at room temp.

Peaches are a lot of trouble to eat, if you don't like the skin, and I don't. But peel off the skin and cut the fruit into pieces, and then sprinkle a bit of sugar over them and mix them -- amazing.

Fruit can vary greatly; some plums are quite sweet, for instance, so if the first couple you try don't seem to be, don't give up. The softer ones are sweeter. Re: cherries, I find the firm, darker red ones the sweetest.

Apples vary in sweetness and mouth-feel by type; gala apples, for instance, are on the sweet side; delicious apples are a bit tasteless, IMO. Granny Smiths are tart and crisp.

Pears should be soft before you even consider eating them, IMO. Push in with your thumb and see if the fruit yields. They'll continue to ripen after you get them home, so wait.

Sometimes at the height of summer you find canteloupe that tastes as though it's already had sugar sprinkled over it. Yum.

Watermelon is God's candy.

[j-bluestocking.livejournal.com]

Forgot to add: peaches, like pears, should be soft -- they should yield if you push your thumb into them. If yours aren't, let them ripen and hope for the best.

Nectarines are a cross between plums and peaches, and I recommend them highly.

[j-bluestocking.livejournal.com]

Oh. And I hate the fibrous part of grapefruit. I cut the grapefruit in half; imagine the two marks as the north and south pole, and then cut through the equator. This will reveal a lot of small pieces that look like pie pieces. I take a knife and cut these fruit parts loose from the fibrous walls around them. That is, I dig straight down with a steak knife, separating each small section of the grapefruit from the "wall" on either side and in back. Then I sprinkle a little sugar over it, and take a spoon and dig each piece out and eat it.

When finished, pick up the grapefruit and squeeze it into the bowl. Grapefruit juice!

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Strawberries go with champagne. You can feel both decadent and traditional when you enjoy them.

Oh, I *love* strawberries with champagne. I rarely have champagne, but when I do, I tend to drop a whole strawberry into the glass. Tasty on all sides.

As for William Carlos Williams and his peaches, have you seen this?

[grace-om.livejournal.com]

The only thing I would add to what's already been said is that personally I don't like to eat strawberries cold. They have more flavor at room temp. Hence I usually eat them the day I buy them, without refrigerating. The fridge kind of deteriorates the texture as well. But to keep them more than a day...yeah, they must be refrigerated or frozen.

[kirbyfest.livejournal.com]

I think you're totally covered on fruit advice. :)

Another good way to learn this stuff: find a good farmer's market (they exist, even in the city) and find a friendly vendor to chat up. They're going to be far more helpful than the guy stocking the produce bins at Jewel.

We are currently hitting Michigan blueberry season, so if you find a farmer's market they'll be loaded with berries. I'm eating them at least once a day right now, and sometimes twice, because I'll rarely eat berries out of season. They just don't taste right. So I eat 'em up in season.

(If you like blueberries, we're talking about going blueberry picking. Let me know if you want to go. It's the easiest fruit picking ever.)

Melons: watermelons are ripe when you smack them and you get a nice satisfying "thunk." Seriously, that's how you tell. Once you know what it's supposed to sound like, you'll always get a good melon. I do the same with honeydew, though I also feel up the honeydew to make sure it's not squishy on the ends.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I WANT TO GO BLUEBERRY PICKING!

[kirbyfest.livejournal.com]

Cool. I'm guessing it will be three weeks from tomorrow, but must confirm that it won't be too late.

[lumenara.livejournal.com]

I miss going blueberry picking. It really is the easiest berry picking ever. Ripe berries will fall off of the canes when you touch them. They grow relatively tall, like raspberry canes, but without the briar-y parts; so you do not have to stoop or be stuck. And if you find a good plant, you can pick a *lot* before moving on to the next one.

*starts thinking about looking for a berry-picking place down here*

[dargie.livejournal.com]

Eat your berries first because they develop little fur coats with horrifying swiftness, especially in this weather.

You can leave most stone fruit (peaches, etc.) out, but unless they're very under ripe, don't put them near the bananas or apples (which you can also leave out if you want.) The methane they give off ripens fruit very fast.

Refrigerate all citrus and I'd say chill the cherries, too. They're already pretty ripe, and should be chilled to prevent further ripening.

And just FYI, never refrigerate your tomatoes because it ruins the flavor, or under ripe avocados because they will never ripen once chilled.

Enjoy. I'm planning on having a grapefruit tomorrow, and a bunch of berries.

[movies-michelle.livejournal.com]

I would add mostly about the peaches: peaches and nectarines should always smell strongly like peaches and nectarines. If they don't smell like what they are, they aren't going to taste very good. (You will find, now and then, p and n which don't smell like much of anything, which means they're really not ripe yet.)

Looks like you have a lot of good advice. I'd say this time of year in Chicago, refrigerate most everything, as it's too hot and humid not to, even in air conditioned apartments.

[iko.livejournal.com]

There's a wonderful book called The Produce Bible. I think you will find it handy.

[ratcreature]

I'd recommend getting a basic cook book/kitchen and food guide. Not one with specific recipes, but one that covers all kinds of food items and explains the basics of them. When I moved out from home I got a book that had a sections on ergonomic kitchen design and tools (you know, which knives for what, how to sharpen knives, which tools do you need in your kitchen, what to look for when buying appliances, how to organize food storage), a section on different foods (divided in chapters listing vegetables, fruits, grains, pulses, cheeses and other dairy, eggs, fish, meats...) with each food listed with information on how to store it and how long it keeps, how to judge quality or ripeness and all that, when it is in season, whether you can freeze is, how you can cook it and so on. And a final part with basic recipes, like basics doughs, soups, sauces and so on to learn cooking rather than just following recipes. I never used all the sections because I was already vegetarian and didn't need to know about all the meats and fishes and all that stuff, but it has been tremendously useful to be able to look up some things, and just learn about food preperation in a logical way starting from the basics.

[furies.livejournal.com]

i just thought i'd add what i could about picking fruit, since everyone seems to have covered care of fruit quite well. (the brown paper bag thing does work, surprisingly enough.)

my grandmother used to take me shopping and i would have to pick all the produce - and then she would tell me how i did. seriously. i had training in this! hahah.

so, berries - most of them come from my region of california, (strawberries at least) if you are buying american. berries should be ripe when you buy them, and they will go bad fairly quickly. it's important to look at the whole carton of berries - examine the bottom, especially. you don't want bruised berries, or dark spots, or (especially) mold. often times you have to settle for the better evil, but.

i like my bananas kind of hard - i can't stand mushy bananas. so i tend to buy the greenest of the bunch, and then let them kind of ripen as we go.

when you pick peaches/nectarines/plums, it's a combination of touch and smell. gently push on the skin - if it's rock hard, it's not ripe. however, you don't want it to be mushy either. it's kind of something you have to learn - i would just stand in the produce section and basically grope the fruit. (hee!) you'll learn pretty quickly. kiwis fall into this category too.

melons actually work by rapping your fingers on them. (watermelons are the best to learn on.) they shouldn't sound hollow. i can't describe the correct sound - you just know it. cantalope should be hard and you can try rapping it as well, but it's harder to hear, due to the texture of the melon.

ummm, cherries and apples are also done just by sight. i would also squeeze the apples, too, because i like mine crisp and hate mushiness. (though mushy apples are sometimes the best for pies (i prefer granny smiths because i like the sourness) and APPLESAUCE.

there are still seasons for fruit in that you will notice the difference in price. and if you want to go fruit picking. apple picking ends in october in new york, that's about when citrus starts going really into season. the problem with citrus lately has been that california had serious weather problems last year, and florida has been in trouble because they got fruit canker. clementines are winter fruit, if i remember correctly - they are all imported. (i. love. clementines.)

and now i am blanking on other types of fruit. hah.

Putting Food By - An Absolute ESSENTIAL!!!

[taverymate.livejournal.com]

Putting Food By written by Janet Greene, Ruth Hertzber, and Beatrice Vaughan is THE best source for info on storing and preserving food that I have ever found - bar none! It's deservedly been called a classic for decades and I cannot recommend it too highly. Seriously, it's fantastic! I've got several editions - my favorite is the 3rd edition (1982) which I've used for the past 25 years, but I keep meaning to get a copy of the 4th edition for a more in-depth comparison.

Putting Food By would be particularly useful for you because it assumes that the reader doesn't have any advanced knowledge; all the steps are explained clearly and concisely. You get basic info on foods (fruit, vegetables, meat, seafood) and herbs/spices as well as techniques for preserving them (pros and cons). For example, they tell you how to choose fruit, how to store it properly, what methods of preservation work best for what varieties, handy tips and also recipes. They also tell you how different methods of preservation will affect how the food can be used afterwards.

Putting Food By covers canning, freezing, pickling, drying, salting, smoking, curing, and root cellaring. All the techniques are tested for food and storage safety. They have also adapted techniques over the years as technology has changed. For example, in addition to traditional methods of canning and freezing, they also include sections on canning convenience foods, using vacuum sealers, and how to freeze things that will later be used in the microwave.

Sugar and salt are essential in preservation, and you can't simply eliminate them and expect standard techniques to work the same. However, the authors also include info on low sugar, no sugar, sugar substitute, and low salt variations - all helpful for those trying to reduce sugars or salt. I've used a ton of the recipes they include and I've never been disappointed.

Putting Food By includes:
1. What is It?
2. Why Foods Spoil
3. Altitude and Metrics
4. Fair Warning
5. Common Ingredients and How to Use Them
6. The Canning Methods
7. Canning Fruits
8. Canning Tomatoes
9. Canning Vegetables
10. Canning Meats
11. Canning Seafood
12. Canning Convenience Foods
13. Getting and Using a Freezer
14. Freezing Fruits
15. Freezing Vegetables
16. Freezing Meats and Seafood
17. Freezing Convenience Foods
18. Jellies, Jams, and Other Sweet Things
19. Pickles, Relishes, and Other Spicy Things
20. Curing with Salt and Smoke
21. Drying
22. Root-Cellaring
23. Putting By Presents for Christmas

You can nearly always find a copy in a used bookstore; I'd say go for the 3rd or 4th editions if you want take advantage of things like microwaves and vacuum sealers. It's still in print, in both hardcover and paperback. The paperback is about $10-15. BUY IT - YOU'LL NEVER REGRET IT!

[brak666.livejournal.com]

I haven't read through all the comments, but I see a lot of people telling you not to refrigerate your bananas. It's a complete myth. Regrigerating will cause the peel to brown, but the fruit itself will stay fresh longer. Though you should wait until they've fully ripened before refrigerating.

[thelastgoodname.livejournal.com]

Despite all the excellent advice you've gotten here, there is one more piece of information that I find essential to determining ripeness and storage means: eat lots of fruit.

When you start eating lots of fruit, you discover how you like your fruit (for example, even the ripest of peaches do nothing for me; I only like them canned), and the more practice you have picking random fruit from large bins, the better you get at selecting the kind of fruit you like best. And the more fruit you have to store, the better you learn how you prefer to store it in your climate to achieve your level of fruity perfection (even if you have to spend a lot of time tossing out stuff left and right to get there).

Also, if you like ripe fruit (rather than underripe), the great thing about fruit is that when it smells best is when it is ripest; this is true of all fruits, but it often takes being left at room temperature (and not in a supermarket) for most people to be able to smell fruit well. And most people don't actually like ripe fruit (as witnessed by all the comments about underripe bananas), so you actually do have to eat a lot of whatever it is to figure out how you like to eat it.

So: sniff, a lot, and eat, a lot. You poor woman; you have a tough summer ahead of you. (And don't forget to resign yourself to throwing away a lot of fruit that goes bad or isn't ready yet or you just don't like until you figure it all out.)

[aukestrel.livejournal.com]

Smell! My mom always taught me to smell near the stem end of fruit to see if it smells ripe. I know it looks weird but it mostly works. Even on stuff like melons!

For berries, I usually just look to see if they are firm and not starting to spoil. Where I live (Ohio), strawberries and blueberries definitely have a season and I don't buy them in the winter or early spring. I also refrigerate all berries. Cherries, not so much, but cherries are usually only good in season anyway (I do believe cherries still have a season, at least the ones from Washington state) and don't last long enough to need refrigeration...

[reginagiraffe]

Bananas will ripen significantly faster in hot weather than cold weather. It's often useful to by a few that are a bit greener and a few that are a bit yellower so that they don't all ripen at the same time. I also have found that using a banana hanger makes the bananas last a bit longer with fewer bruises. You can get inexpensive plastic ones for a few bucks that work fine.

I usually will leave stone fruit out for a few days to ripen and then (if I'm not going to have a chance to eat them right away) put them in the fridge, where they'll last another 4 or 5 days. I also try to get fruit that already has quite a lot of color (i.e. peaches that have a lot of blush) because while they will "ripen" (get softer and sweeter) they won't develop more color.