A grocery store!
Grocery shopping has always been one of my favorite past-time activities… and it can easily become the highlight of your week too! The sensation of walking through aisles, observing other shoppers, and selecting ripe produce is magical. Today, although I’m able to drive alone, I still prefer to tag along with my parents when they take their weekly grocery shopping trip each weekend. After years of pushing around a shopping cart, I still feel like I have lots to learn before next year when we will need to independently select our own produce. In this post, I hope to share some of the less intuitive tips for choosing three types of fruit that I’ve learned from my grocery trips (and the internet).
A subtle, but important, difference in color
AVOCADO
This creamy fruit pairs well with smoothies, sandwiches, salads, and toast! A common tip I’ve heard is pressing lightly on an avocado’s surface to see if it gives. However, I recommend testing out other ripeness metrics before resorting to this one in order to avoid bruised avocados. For instance, you can try flicking off the stem. If it’s perfectly golden, then your avocado should be good to go for both purchase and consumption! Other colors, such as brown or green, mean that the avocado isn’t really ready.
On the off chance that you already purchased one that isn’t green beneath the stem, you’re in luck! You’ll be able to wait for the avocado to ripen, watching its progress from the same spot. Interestingly, the color and texture of an avocado have little effect on its ripeness, so don’t be fooled by one that’s extra green or bumpy!
A contrast of watermelon ground spots
WATERMELON
With its vibrant red color, firm texture, and slightly sweet taste, who could possibly resist watermelon in the middle of summertime? Purchasing watermelon always seems like more of a commitment compared to buying other fruits. If you select one that’s exactly to your liking, you’re in a week of tasty smoothies and desserts! However, if you accidentally choose one that’s bland or not ripe, it could take a while to clear it from your fridge.
A couple of tips I’ve learned to increase your chances of picking the ideal watermelon is maximizing the fruit’s color contrast and weight. Specifically, your best shot is choosing a heavy one with dark green skin and a bright yellow patch. This round area on the watermelon is called the ground spot and corresponds to where the fruit made contact with the earth as it grew. The color of this spot indicates how long the watermelon spent ripening on the vine (with white being a short period and yellow being a long period). When in doubt about the color or weight, you can also try knocking on each watermelon’s surface with your hand. If you’re greeted with a hollow sound instead of a dull thump, you’ll know that your watermelon is at the peak of its ripeness and filled with juice!
An assortment of yellow and non-yellow pineapples
PINEAPPLE
With pineapples, I think it’s more challenging to cut them than to choose them! Nevertheless, selecting one that’s firm, but not unyielding is the key to making sure that your choice isn’t too sour. When it comes to coloring, brighter yellow pineapples are definitely the way to go compared to those that appear more green.
It never hurts to take a sniff (or whiff or waft) of the bottom of a pineapple to verify that you made the right choice. Although this step is more difficult while wearing a mask, detecting a scent that’s bright, fruity, and sweet is an excellent way to tell that you selected a great pineapple. Lastly, you can also try to tug the leaves at the top of the pineapple. If they give easily, that’s another sure sign of sweet fruit!
A helpful visual aid!
OTHER TIPS
Another general tip to remember is staying mindful of a fruit or vegetable’s season! Wouldn’t you feel strange if you saw a bunch of ripe blackberries or peaches at your local grocery store in the middle of winter? Having a general sense of when produce enters its peak season can give you a good idea of which items you should purchase during different times of the year. I’ve found this graphic to be very visually appealing when it comes to common fruits and vegetables!
With spring and summer right around the corner, I’m looking forward to stocking up on fruits and learning more tips from those around me about grocery shopping! I think I’m a little rusty when it comes to picking ripe vegetables, so I would love to hear any advice in that domain. Happy fruit shopping during the next few months!
Works Cited
“Foods in Season.” VA Infant & Toddler Specialist Network, 6 Nov. 2012, va.gapitc.org/foods-in-season-2/.
Tarantino, Olivia. “7 Tips for How to Pick the Perfect Avocado: Eat This, Not That!” Eat This Not That, Eat This Not That, 31 July 2020, www.eatthis.com/how-to-pick-perfect-avocado/.
Watson, Molly. “What’s In Season In Illinois?” The Spruce Eats, www.thespruceeats.com/illinois-seasonal-fruits-and-vegetables-2217177.
Hi Alayna,
I thought your post was super interesting, especially since I wanted to compare your listed methods with the ones my parents use! My parents have very particular ways in which they pick out fruit, but they always seems effective. Like you mentioned, they always knock on watermelons, and although I really can’t hear a difference between the *thuds, it seems to be a relatively reliable way to check for ripeness. I also always forget the seasons in which fruits/veggies are ripe, so the chart you provided was super helpful ! Thanks! 🙂
Hello Alayna, these are great tips. I did not know that you can flick off the stem to check the ripeness of an avocado. I also did not know about the contrast of a watermelon, my parents used to get the greenest ones. Hopefully that means we can find sweeter ones next time. Checking the season also is a good tip to make sure that the fruit is natural and fresh. I really like the mangoes in the summertime and you can small the stem to see if they are good to eat. Are there specific stores that have better quality fruits that you prefer to shop from?
Hi Jimit! Thanks for your comment. I love mangoes as well but never heard about the tip you mentioned with smelling their stems! I’ve mostly been judging by how red or yellow they appear to be and will definitely give your method a try. My family usually buys most of our fruits from Garden Fresh Market in Naperville. I find that they always have consistently low prices as well as a large variety! Do you have any recommendations for good fruit stores nearby?
Hi Alayna,
When I go to the grocery store with my mom, I always notice that when she picks out her fruit she is always making sure she picks the right one. However, I always watched and never knew what truly made that particular fruit the best one. I really liked the tips you gave in your blog and I think that the seasons are one of most important yet underrated things about a fruit. I have never heard of the contrast tip about watermelon and it will definitely be one that I will keep in mind the next time I am at a grocery store.
This is a blog post I never knew I needed! I feel like I always buy avocados that are not even close to ripe, so I have to wait for a long time. The tip about flicking the stem is so interesting! I’ll definitely give it a try next time I’m grocery shopping. Your tip about knocking on the watermelon’s surface is really familiar to me, as I always watch my parents knock on each watermelon at the store, but I’ve never really realized what they were listening for. I’ll also definitely follow your advice about staying mindful of when fruits and vegetables are in season. My favorite fruit is blueberries, and I feel like there is a huge difference in the taste of blueberries at different times of year, but I’ve never really pinpointed when they are actually in season and best to buy. Thanks for the tips! 🙂
Hi Alayna, I had no idea that I needed this blog until I read it. Your advice on avocados is definitely very helpful. I always manage to pick avocados that are either overripe or way too underripe. Flicking the stem of the avocado is something that I will be sure to try. My mom always seems to be an expert at picking out ripe fruit (she can just pat a watermelon and know), so this is really helpful to know the next time I’m at the store by myself 🙂