HAVE you ever picked rotten or bad fruit from a grocery store or market? Its not a pleasant feeling to bite into a rotten apple or find bruises on your mangoes or pears.
Most people know instinctively to avoid bruised or blemished produce, but there is much more involved in the art of choosing fruits and vegetables.
While buying fresh food is always a little bit of a craps shoot (and not every rule will apply to every piece of produce), these tips will give you the basic skills you need to hold at the market.
First you need to identify its colour. The website wikihow.com says that after youve checked for bruises, blemishes and pests, look for fruits and vegetables with the brightest, most inviting colours.
If the item has a dull colour or whitish sheen that means it is either not fully ripe or was deprived of sun or nutrients.
Generally you want to pick produce that is the heaviest relative to the rest of your options. Lightweight produce is more likely to be dry and mealy, but heavier produce will be juicy and crisp.
The best way to tell is to pick up two similarly sized fruits, one with each hand. After youve tried a few it will be obvious that certain fruits are much heavier than the rest, and those are your best bets. This applies to both fruits and vegetables, but mostly to fruits.
Because the best produce is moist and juicy), it should also be perfectly plump. This means that it will be firm to the touch think crisp and succulent but not hard, squishy or limp.
For vegetables with stalks like carrots and broccoli, be sure the ends dont give too much when you try to bend them (but dont try too hard or they might snap).
The most telling test of the quality of your fuit is how it smells.
Unripe fruits smell like nothing, or at best the cardboard it was packed in. But ripe produce almost always smell faintly (and often overwhelmingly) of how it is supposed to taste. Hold the part of the fruit that was attached to the stem close to your nose and breathe deeply. Compare a few of your options.
The strongest smelling fruit will be the most ripe and ready to eat immediately. If youd like your fruit to last for a few days, it is best to go with a piece that still smells good, but has a less overwhelming scent.
Its also worth smelling your vegetables, though this tip does not apply to them all (eggplant is a notable exception). Green leafy vegetables and herbs are particularly fragrant.
But even carrots, artichokes and squash can have a distinctive smell. Peppers are my personal favourite.