Some ideas and suggestions for selecting fruit.

How to Select Fruits

1. Buy in season when quality is highest and prices lowest.
2. Don’t buy more than you will use before they perish. Use it as soon as possible they will have a better taste.
3. Don’t buy damaged fruit unless damage is slight and you will use it immediately.
4. Be careful how you handle fruit in stores so you don’t ruin the fruit for others.
5. Fruit should only be eaten when ripe. Some foods (bananas can be purchased green and ripened at home.
6. Try to purchase organic fruit as much as possible for they are not sprayed with pesticides.
7. Smell the produce and see if there is an unpleasant odour coming from the fruit.
8. If fruit doesn’t taste right it is better to disregard it than disregard your health.

Here are some tips for specific fruits:

Apples

Seasons: October through March.
Types: Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Pippin, Golden Grimes, McIntosh, Jonathan and Winesap.
Selecting: Organic if possible. Apples are one of the most sprayed fruits. Apples should be firm and crisp with bright and shiny skin. Color is a sign of maturity in apples - high in color indicates maturity - and only apples picked when mature will have good flavor and texture.

Apricots

Season : June through July
Selecting : Look for plump, juicy looking apricots with a uniform golden- orange hue. When ripe they will gently yield to pressure. Due to the short growing season dried apricots are very popular. Avoid sulfur covered dried apricots and buy organic if available.

Avocados

Season : Available all year.
Selecting : Very important to eat avocados when just ripe, when it has a buttery consistency and a mild flavor. Best to buy avocados when they are hard and firm. Take them home, place them in a brown paper bag and let them ripen at room temperature. Select avocados of uniform colors and free of cracks. Don’t buy avocados with dark, sunken spots in irregular patches or cracked surfaces.

Bananas

Season : Available all year.
Selecting : It is best to buy bananas when green for ripening at home, where ripening conditions can be controlled. Bananas are usually ‘gassed’ to facilitate ripening. Bananas have a good protective skin so the flesh isn’t exposed to chemical sprays. Select bananas free from surface bruises with skin intact at both tips. Don’t buy bananas which are bruised, discolored, or dull and grayish which means they have been held in cold storage and will never ripen properly.

Oranges

Season : December through June.
Types : Navels, Temples, Tangelos, Valencia’s, Tangerines, Tangerines, Pineapple oranges.
Selecting : Color of the skin is no indication of quality or ripeness. The skin of the first crops of mature oranges in November are green or greenish, but mature oranges are ready for harvest and eating, even when the skin is green. They are, however, not as sweet as oranges harvested a month or so later on. California growers ‘orange’ their green fruit by gassing; Florida shippers put the oranges through a colored wax bath (a ’nontoxic’ food coloring and wax). because they believe the added color will make the fruit more saleable. Firm heavy oranges are full of juice. Avoid lightweight fruit and a very rough surface, which usually signifies a thick skin and a smaller orange.

Papayas

Seasons : Some of the fruit is available all year long.
Selecting : Select fruit that has some golden yellow or orange streaks, which is a sign that it has not been picked to green and will be apt to ripen properly. If you select papaya with at least 35% of the skin streaked yellow , they will ripen completely in two or three days at room temperature. When a papaya is totally yellow to orange and yields to gentle pressure, it is then ready for eating. Avoid mushy papayas, or fruit with dark patches, which signify age and decay. The taste should be sweet and lucious.

Mangos

Seasons : May through August.
Selecting Fruit : Mango can be bought green and ripened at room temperature. It is best to select mangos which are starting to show signs of ripening, rather then totally hard and green, or totally ripe. Haden Mangos are ready to eat when it is yellow/orange, only slightly firm, yielding to gentle pressure. The Carrie mango is large and green. It turns a paler green and develops dark speckles as it ripens. When ripe enough for full flavor and enjoyment, it is slightly firm, yielding to pressure. Mangos have a tough peel which is a good protective coat against pesticides.