How to Choose Fruit When Shopping:
Yeah, we’re doing this. Too often friends or even strangers at the grocery store approach me on the subject of choosing fruit. The problem: “Every time I pick up fruit at the grocery store, it’s never sweet enough…it’s mushy, grainy, dry, etc… Why are my melons never as luscious as yours?” Well, genetics have something to do with it. My parents were always good at picking fruit. But here are a few tips for you folks out there who just can’t seem to get the knack, and even you tried and true produce veterans who feel like your skills allow room for improvement.
Alright troops, in this course, we are going to cover 5 essential factors for picking fruit in order of importance: Density, Fragrance, Coloring, Season, Local Selection and then we’ll finish it off with a little self help guide I like to call, “You’re Just Not That into Figs.”
Having grown up minding pecan and peach trees, I learned a few things about fruit bearing trees, their loves, triumphs, and life cycles. When fruit is ready to be picked, that tree will actually ask you to pick its fruit. It has lots of ways of attracting potential carriers, because it does essentially want you to take its fruit in exchange for spreading its seeds as far and wide as you travel.
1.) Density: Ripe fruit will hang low, all the better for you to pick it. It will become dense with water, and then you know you have a juicy fruit. Fruit that is picked too early will not have received enough water from its mama and never will. This applies to nearly everything, including leafy greens and root vegetables. Water rich fruits and veggies are juicy. Choosing a dense fruit will safeguard you from pulpy citrus, sandy textured apples and pears, gummy peaches and other stone fruit, and bland berries. Size them up and compare weight. It’s ok to do this among produce. It won’t make them self-conscious. You cannot wait out or fix fruit that is not dense enough to begin with. Imagine a container the same size as your fruit filled filled about 90% of the way with water. Is that about what it weighs? If yes, then the fruit you’re holding is dense enough.
2.) Fragrance: though harder to distinguish when the fruit has been waxed, all fruits give off some sort of fragrance. If your fruit is not very dense, you may notice that the smell is equally lacking. Smell is meant to attract carriers, and fruit that is ripe will literally smell so good that if you are even fairly hungry, you should want to bite a sufficiently fragrant fruit as soon as you hold it up to your nose. If you don’t feel compelled to eat it, put it back.
3.) Coloring: because primates like “pretty things,” nature has outsmarted us once more with the hypnotizing effect of lush color. Highly saturated reds, yellows, purples and oranges tell us which fruits we want to eat, so while there are a scant few exceptions, just take this one for face value. If however, you happen upon a fruit that is a: dense, b: fragrant, but c: lacks color, here is a little trick to ensure maximum deliciousness…put it in a brown paper bag. In anywhere from several hours to a couple of days, you should have a ripe, juicy, delicious piece of fruit. If density and fragrance are exceptional, it means you have stumbled across a fruit that was only slightly on the green side, and waiting it out should pay off well.
4.) Season: think about the season it is. If you’re trying to pick a peach in late January, chances are, it’s going to suck. How do you know it’s in season? Well, that varies from fruit to fruit, so I’m not going to get into it. Do your own leg work, you lazy jerk. I will, however, give you a hint: if it’s on sale, and it looks good, buy it. If it’s a really really good sale, it means they’re getting so much of this fruit while it’s in season that they have a lot to pick from and are having trouble finding room for it all. You would be a fool not to load up. A FOOL!
5.) Think Local: While we get much of our fruit from other countries, it will inevitably mean these two things: 1. Shipping will have made it more expensive, 2. It was picked very green in order to accommodate packing and shipping time before rot sets in or bruising occurs. Ultimately, it is pricier fruit for a lesser quality. You may have been on vacation to a tropical paradise, gone to Chile and eaten red plums or savored avocados in the verdant south of Mexico, and said, “Da-yum. This fruit is like a million bajillion times better than the fruit we get at home! Whycome? All OUR fruit comes from HERE? They keeping the good fruit to themselves? 😡 Damn sneaks!” Well, while we do get our fruit from the exact same region and maybe even same farm/orchard as that delish fruit you had on vacay, shipping and the laws of space and time dictate that they simply cannot wait for fruit to ripen before sending it off. The fruit you ate locally most likely had a chance to fulfill its maximum potential for deliciosity, (and was probably A LOT cheaper) whereas the expensive fruit your grocer ordered in from the same damn tree fell way short of expectation. And that’s another reason why you should SHOP LOCALLY. Oh, also, it’s like good for the environment and both global and local economy or some shit.
Now that you have been schooled on picking good fruit, I have but one last bit of advice. When you see that fruit that you know is bad, just walk away. You may really want a peach, but you find only peaches that are light, odorless, pale, bruised, overpriced, and you know they couldn’t possibly be in season…there is only one thing you should do: walk away. You’re setting yourself up for disappointment. As hard as it may be to accept, as badly as you want it, you’re better off settling for a fruit in season or even buying frozen fruit, than taking home that questionable harvest eying you from behind the mango crate. When the time is right, and you find that special fruit, you’ll be glad that you waited, and it will just taste all the sweeter.
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