A Lighter View
Picking perfect produce
By K.E.H. Stagg

April 29, 2010

Now that summer is approaching and with it the arrival of fresh fruits and veggies to local markets, we begin the season when all shoppers want to find produce in its prime: ripe, but not yet starting to “turn.” With the notable exception of pineapples and watermelon, which both involve a hollow-sounding, resonant thump, I have to admit it’s all total guesswork on my part.

I squeeze items to see if they’re rock-hard or oozy-squishy, but there’s not really any other way to tell if the goods really are good. Obviously there’s a color test—Too pale? Too dark?—but with applied waxes and color enhancers, that’s no longer a reliable gauge of ripeness. Fresh corn is an exception to the unreliability of visual testing. Once you pull off the silk, you can see if the kernels are rotting and feel if they’re hard as brick chips. Bananas, too, pass the over-ripe visual test, with tell-tale black spots covering mushy pulp.

Since so many varieties are now bred for size, that is no indicator of ripeness, either. And while I’ve watched other people perform a sniff test, let’s be honest. What does a fresh carrot really smell like? What’s the difference between the smell of a good grape and a bad one? You can’t smell the ripeness of a tomato or an apricot because they don’t smell like anything, except possibly when they’re rotten enough to attract fruit flies, which itself is a sign that the produce is past its prime.

For the most part, however, there’s no indicator to let you know that you’re getting visually appealing produce with all the flavor of, say, cardboard. Neighbors proffering their gardens’ excess are a good source for tasty produce, whether it’s zucchini by the truckload or peaches by the bushel. Produce stands and farm markets, of which I’m a big advocate—as opposed to a grocery store—often offer samples, and there’s no substitute for a taste test to let you know you’re getting quality merchandise.

Nothing beats the pick-your-own method, however. That way, I have no one but myself to blame if I don’t end up with the best of what I’m choosing, be it orchard fruit or garden veggies. And I always ‘fess up when I’ve tasted a strawberry or sampled a snap pea before gathering my portion.

If I grew everything myself, I wouldn’t need to toss a coin to know if my veggies were ripe or not, but then I’d have issues of pest control. Let’s see...fresh produce and no critters, or garden-fresh goods with critters? Hmm, I’m going with the coin toss. At least that way I don’t have to worry about rabies!