Storing & Ripening Fruit
Tips For Knowing When Your Fruit is Ripe & Maximizing Longevity
Tips For Knowing When Your Fruit is Ripe & Maximizing Longevity
Storing: Refrigerate, unwashed, in Tupperware (or any closed container)
Ripening: Our berries are picked ripe and ready to eat. But you can leave at room temperature after refrigerating before eating to increase the flavour. Tip: only leave out what you are going to eat.
Rule of Thumb: Do not wash before storing. Store in the fridge in a air tight container
Fruits: Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Tayberries, Golden Raspberries
Storing: Leave at room temperature, then store in the fridge at the correct ripeness. Store in low humidity in crisper drawer.
Ripening: Leave at room temperature until the avocado is soft and turning brown. To speed ripen: place a ripe banana, or apple, with the unripe avocados and cover them in a warm place.
Rule of Thumb: Only refrigerate an avocado when the skin goes from green to brown. This can extend the shelf life for 2-3 weeks. Refrigerating an avocado too early can result in the flesh turning brown.
Storing: Leave at room temperature, then store in the fridge when soft.
Ripening: Leave at room temperature until the mango is soft to the touch.
Rule of Thumb: Smaller mangoes will ripen faster than larger mangoes. Even if the skin is wrinkly the flesh is generally still good. Refrigerating a mango too early can result in less flavour and browning.
Storing: Store at low humidity in fridge crisper drawer
Ripening: Leave at room temperature until the papaya skin is yellow.
Rule of Thumb: Yellow means ready to eat/store
Storing: Store in fridge, in a moist environment. Submerging citrus in water has proven to extend citrus shelf life, but not every one has the fridge space for a massive bowl of water!
Ripening: It depends how you like your oranges. Some prefer them firm, and some prefer them soft and juicy. Leave at room temperature until they reach ideal firmness/softness.
Rule of Thumb: Deep orange means ready to eat/store.
Storing: Once soft, store in fridge crisper at low humdity.
Ripening: Leave at room temperature, or in fridge crisper at high humidity, until the fruit is entirely soft. To speed ripen: place a ripe banana, avocado, or apple with the unripe custard apples and cover them in a warm place.
Rule of Thumb: When you touch the fruit and it feels like there is custard inside then you know it's at optimal ripeness and/or storing stage.
Fruits: Atemoya, Pawpaw, Sugar Apple, Cherimoya, Soursop
Storing: wrapping your lychees and longan in newspaper, or any paper, and in the fridge will prevent moisture build up which can result in the skin molding. Lychee in the fridge vs on the counter can extend the fruit's shelf life from 1-2 weeks. Rambutan, on the other hand, prefers moisture. We recommend also storing these in the fridge, but in plastic.
Ripening: soapberries don't ripen once they are picked, so they are always ready to eat. They can be stored on the counter if you plan to eat them in a day or two. Otherwise we recommend only storing them in the fridge
Rule of Thumb: always refrigerate
Fruits: Longan, Lychee, Rambutan
Storing: in and out of cold temperatures is what can cause a stone fruit to get mealy. If your stone fruit is not at your ideal ripeness then leave at room temperature until it is, then store at low humidity in crisper. Once stored only remove from fridge to eat
Ripening: leave at room temperature, or on high humidity in crisper until the fruit is soft enough for your thumb to press in. To speed ripen: place a ripe banana, apple, or avocado into a paper bag with the stone fruit.
Rule of Thumb: wrinkly skin is over ripe
Fruits: Peaches, Plums, Apricots, Nectarines, Cherries
Storing: Once ripe, chop up and store in a sealed container. This will extend the shelf life and save room in your fridge
Ripening: Leave at room temperature until the melon is fragrant. We recommend smelling the top or bottom of the fruit.
Rule of Thumb: Fragrant = ripe
Storing: store at room temperature until the fruit reaches ideal ripeness, then refrigerate. For star apple and abiu the ideal ripeness is when the fruit is soft to the touch (maybe a little wrinkly). For egg fruit and sapodilla the ideal ripeness is when the fruit is soft like butter.
Ripening: room temperature until soft (like a stone fruit).
Rule of Thumb: know the colour of ripeness for each fruit. I.e. egg fruit = deep yellow, purple star apple = purple.
Fruits: Milk Fruit (Star Apple), Egg Fruit, Sapodilla, Abiu
Storing: yellow dragon fruit, or Pitahaya, can be stored in the fridge once the skin is yellow.
Ripening: leave pitahaya at room temperature, or in low humidity in fridge crisper, until the skin is almost entirely yellow.
Rule of Thumb: more yellow and more wrinkles means sweeter and juicier.
Fruits: Pitahaya, Red Dragon Fruit
Storing: in a well ventilated container in the crisper drawer of your fridge
Ripening: not necessary.
Rule of Thumb: keep refrigerated to keep crisp
Storing: granadilla are one of the easier fruits to store. Leave them in the fridge crisper and they will be good for about a month
Ripening: granadilla can stay out of the fridge for a few days, or until they are deep orange
Rule of Thumb: our granadillas are always good to eat
Storing: you can store the whole pomegranate in a plastic bag, wrapped in a dry paper towel in your fridge once it is ripe, or harvest the seeds into a sealed container.
Ripening: leave on the counter, or low humidity crisper, until the fruit is deep red
Rule of Thumb: firm and red is perfect
Storing: storing your mangosteen between 4-8 degrees will prolong their shelf life, but will make the shell harder, thus more difficult to open. Ideal storage for prolonging quality and shelf life is between 12-15 degrees. So we recommend storing mangosteens in your crisper drawer. Storing your mangosteens in a poly bag, or sealed container, can also help extend the shelf life.
Ripening: a ripe mangosteen will have some give in the shell when light pressure is applied. These mangosteens are ready to eat, or stored. But this is where things get tricky: a hard mangosteen is either over-ripe, or under-ripe. Either way, hard mangosteens shouldn't be stored in the fridge.
Rule of Thumb: if the skin has give when you press your thumb in then the fruit will be perfect. If it's hard then the flesh might have some bruising and soft spots
While this guide shares groundwork for ripening and storing fruits it is important to note that it is often up to you to decide when it's best to store your fruit. Everyone has their preference of ready-to-eat fruit, so if you are going to take anything from this guide it would be to never refrigerate under-ripe fruits.
Another important note/tip is understanding how your fridge crisper drawers work. Your fridge crisper usually has two settings: high humidity and low humidity. High humidity traps in the fruits' gases, allowing them to ripen more. Low humidity vents the gas out of the drawer, making for a better environment for storing.