There's nothing like a perfectly luscious strawberry, crisp apple, or juicy watermelon. Besides shopping for fruits at their peak season, it helps to know how to spot – and smell and feel – the very best at your local farmers' market or grocery store. Here's how…
What You Need
Tools
Your senses!
Instructions
• Apples: Choose fruits that are deeply colored, firm, naturally shiny, and heavy for their size.
• Apricots: Choose fruits that are fragrant and slightly soft but not mushy.
• Bananas: Choose bright yellow bananas to eat right away or green bananas to ripen at home. Avoid fruits that are bruised or split.
• Blueberries: Choose berries that are firm, dry, and blue (not red or green). A white sheen is natural. Also check the bottom of the basket to make sure there aren't any crushed or spoiled berries.
• Cantaloupes: Choose fruits that are fragrant and cream or golden in color (not green). Avoid fruits with soft spots, although the end opposite the stem should be slightly soft.
• Cherries: Choose berries that are plump, shiny, and darker in color. Cherries with intact stems have a longer shelf life.
• Figs: Choose soft, plump fruits with intact, bent stems. Minor bruises or tears are usually harmless, but avoid buying dry, cracked figs.
• Grapefruits: Choose fruits that have smooth, thin skins and are heaviest for their size. They should feel firm but slightly springy to the touch. Don't worry about color.
• Grapes: Choose fruits that are firm, plump, and heavy for their size. They should be firmly attached to the stems without wrinkled or brown spots.
• Kiwi Fruits: Choose fruits that give slightly when pressed. Avoid fruits that are either rock hard or mushy.
• Lemons and Limes: Choose fruits that are fragrant and heaviest for their size. Avoid fruits that are shriveled.
• Mangoes: Choose fruits that are slightly soft to the touch and fragrant near the stem end.
• Oranges: Choose fruits that heaviest for their size and have firm, smooth skins. Don't worry about color. For Mandarin oranges, make sure skins are firm, not shriveled.
• Peaches: Choose fragrant, deeply colored (not green) fruits that are firm but slightly soft to the touch.
• Pears: Pears are usually picked before they are fully ripe, but choose fruits that are free of bruises and look for any that are getting soft just below the stem. Ripen them at room temperature; placing them in a paper bag speeds up the process.
• Persimmons: Choose fruits that are deep orange or red in color. Fuyu types should be firm but not rock-hard. Hachiya types should be soft and squishy or kept at room temperature for a week or two until they soften. Dark spots caused by by sunburn are harmless unless the flesh is sunken or broken.
• Pineapples: Choose fruits that smell sweet at the stem end, have fresh looking leaves, and are heavy for their size. Avoid fruits with soft spots or dry, brown leaves.
• Plums: Choose fruits that are deeply colored, shiny, and firm but not rock hard. A white or gray sheen is natural.
• Pomegranates: Choose fruits that are heavy for their size. Cracks are a good sign that the fruits are bursting with plump seeds; just make sure there isn't any mold in the cracks.
• Quinces: Choose fruits that are firm and golden in color.
• Strawberries: Choose berries that are fragrant, uniformly red (not yellow or green), and shiny with fresh green tops. Also check the bottom of the basket to make sure there aren't any crushed or spoiled berries.
• Watermelons: Choose fruits that are firm and heavy and sound hollow when thumped. A properly ripened watermelon should have a yellow spot on one side where it sat on the ground.
Do you have any other tips to share?
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(Images: Emily Ho, Emily Ho, Faith Durand, Joanna Miller, USDA, Emily Ho, Emily Ho, Faith Durand, Emily Ho, Emily Ho, Kathryn Hill, Flickr member visualdensity licensed under Creative Commons, Emily Ho, Emily Ho, Emily Ho, Emily Ho, Flickr member visualdensity licensed under Creative Commons, Emily Ho, Emily Ho, Faith Durand, Emily Ho, Faith Durand)
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I've always wanted to know this, thanks for this post!
YES!!!! I suggested this when you guys were looking for suggestions a bit ago. LOVE this complete guide!!! I am printing this out for the fridge.
Bruised bananas are great for banana bread! And sometimes you can get a discount, too.
A few additions for canteloupes (I used to work on a farm that grew them): look at the stem end--there should be a little scooped out area where the stem fell away cleanly when it was picked (you can sort of see this on the ones in the picture). If there is still stem left on the fruit, it wasn't ready to be picked. Also look for fruits with dense webbing, if it is green underneath the webbing that is ok, it should continue to ripen if you leave it out.
This is so useful! Thank you!
The problem with saying that apples should be "naturally shiny" is that supermarkets know people know this, and wax them. This has been common practice for ages. They do it to lemons too.
Moral of the story: Don't buy artificially ripened, artificially shined fruit that's been trucked 1000 miles to your supermarket.
as a rule of thumb when buying pineapple, i try to pull off the "leaves" on the underside of the pineapple. if they come off easily, the pineapple is ripe and ready to eat.
as far as really ripe bananas, they are awesome frozen and added to smoothies.
Bananas are actually much better (tasting and for you) to eat when they're speckled brown on the outside. This means that some of the starches are converting to sugars. These starches can cause stomach aches. Definitely never eat a banana that has any green on it.
I have heard that the pineapple leaves thing is a myth.
My best recommendation for picking a pineapple is if it smells like pineapple it is usually good. This goes for almost any fruit really, especially strawberries, nectarines and peaches.
plucking a pineapple leaf works every time for me! delicious, juicy and sweet!!!! yum!!!!
If you're looking for green grapes, it's also helpful to look for the bunches where the grapes have a yellow cast. Those will be the sweetest and ripest.
For lemons and limes I also suggest squeezing them a bit... if they are hard then they won't squeeze well and probably aren't very juicy. If they are a squishy then they tend to be juicier.
Oh man, this post makes me miss summer!
@anirtak
I don't know about better or not better for you, but I disagree about tasting better. That's a matter of preference.
I like my bananas slightly green, and once they are thoroughly yellow and about to get freckles I don't like how they taste anymore. By that point I wait until they're rather brown and save them for baking or smoothies. But for straight banana eating I've got to have me some green. ;)