Perfect Produce

This week, rather than tackling a tactile domestic goal, I learned some literally valuable information. Just like tons of great advice – this comes straight from my mother (and with the help of the world wide web - through this blog and to your noggin').

Earlier today, my roommate and I were talking about our shared immense love of a many splendored fruit: the avocado. We were sharing our favorite meals and snacks that highlight avocados when I made the bold – yet true – statement that I would eat just a whole avocado for lunch and be perfectly content. I started daydreaming about this hypothetically wonderful meal and realized that I don’t know the first thing about picking a great avocado. What color should it be? Are the ripe ones firm or soft? So many questions: what about pineapples?! Bananas? Tomatoes? I got motivated to find the answers.

Signs of awesome avocados: 
It’s a good idea to buy an unripe avocado and wait for it to ripen to use it. When its skin turns from green to a dark brownish-green color and "gives" slightly when it is gently squeezed, you’ve got the perfect ‘cado. Avoid dark sunken spots or cracks when picking them, as well. 

I HIGHLY recommend this wonderful webpage for timing & storing advice for avocados. They have a visual avocado time line.  Neat!

Signs of the perfect pineapple:

         The pineapple ripeness test was the most interesting of all the fruits to me. I think this video shows it better than I ever could describe it, so have a go at this YouTube gold.

 

Signs of the best bananas:

         Bananas’ ripeness can be pinpointed by the external color. The fruit will change from green (unripe) to yellow (perfectly ripe) to brown (overripe).  I always think that overripe bananas look disgusting and useless, but I was surprised to find that they are very useful for many recipes. Banana bread, shakes, banana chips, baked banana, or banana pops are several things that overripe bananas are great for! 

I picked my three favorite fruits to highlight in this post, but if your favorite isn’t on here – take heart! My advice would be to search around on the web to learn more. Even if you think you know your favorite fruits/veggies inside and out, you might be surprised and learn something new like I did!

Also, looking up information on the proper way to store your produce is worth the while. Because what good is knowing which ones to buy if you aren’t storing it properly? Knowing that will save you money and energy with less trips to the grocery store! These are useful tidbits of knowledge that can help with domestic endeavors ‘til the end of time.

  

So Keep Calm & Ripen On!