Choosing The Best Fruits For Your Christmas Basket

There’s nothing like a perfectly luscious kiwi, crisp apple, or juicy watermelon, even a succulent bunch of grapes around Christmas time.  Besides shopping for fruits in their season, most persons choose to buy an exceptionally large amount of fruits at Christmas, especially in Guyana. Here are some tips on how to pick the best fruits at your local market:, it helps to know how to spot – and smell and feel – the very best at your local market or grocery store. Here’s how…

All that you’ll need is a good pair of eyes, an accurate sense of smell and some very judgmental fingers.

For:

• Apples: Choose fruits that are deeply colored, firm, naturally shiny, and heavy for their size.
• Bananas: Choose bright yellow bananas to eat right away or green bananas to ripen at home. Avoid fruits that are bruised or split.
• Muskmelon: Choose fruits that are fragrant and cream or golden in color (not green). Avoid fruits with soft spots, although the end opposite the stem should be slightly soft.
• Cherries: Choose berries that are plump, shiny, and darker in color. Cherries with intact stems have a longer shelf life.
• Grapes: Choose fruits that are firm, plump, and heavy for their size. They should be firmly attached to the stems without wrinkled or brown spots.
• Kiwi Fruits: Although they are not very common they are increasingly becoming popular with fruit fanatics in Guyana. To get the best, you must choose fruits that give slightly when pressed. Avoid fruits that are either rock hard or mushy.
• Mangoes: Choose fruits that are slightly soft to the touch and fragrant near the stem end.
• Oranges: Choose fruits that heaviest for their size and have firm, smooth skins. Don’t worry about color. For Mandarin oranges, make sure skins are firm, not shriveled.
• Peaches: Choose fragrant, deeply colored (not green) fruits that are firm but slightly soft to the touch.
• Pears: Pears are usually picked before they are fully ripe, but choose fruits that are free of bruises and look for any that are getting soft just below the stem. Ripen them at room temperature; placing them in a paper bag speeds up the process.
• Pineapples: Choose fruits that smell sweet at the stem end, have fresh looking leaves, and are heavy for their size. Avoid fruits with soft spots or dry, brown leaves.
• Strawberries: Choose berries that are fragrant, uniformly red (not yellow or green), and shiny with fresh green tops. Also check the bottom of the basket to make sure there aren’t any crushed or spoiled berries.
• Watermelons: Choose fruits that are firm and heavy and sound hollow when thumped. A properly ripened watermelon should have a yellow spot on one side where it sat on the ground.