I want to know how to select fruit and veggies at the store!

October 24, 2008 4:33 PM

How can I learn to select produce at the store?

I would like to eat healthier, and enjoy the abundance of great produce here in Northern CA. But I have limited knowledge of picking fruit, and even identifying what some of the rare ones are, let alone what they taste like and how to choose them.

I would love an immersive guide book, or a good web resource would do too. Google didn't turn up anything too compelling, and it's been a while since this http://ask.metafilter.com/4178/

posted by k7lim to food & drink (13 comments total)

Field Guide to Produce: How to Identify, Select, and Prepare Virtually Every Fruit and Vegetable at the Market by Aliza Green
posted by jammy at 4:49 PM on October 24, 2008 [2 favorites]

Chez Panisse Vegetables is also a great resource on what to look for, when, and how to prepare it.
posted by supermedusa at 5:15 PM on October 24, 2008

And here's something to keep in mind if you forget everything else in the amazing links above: if it doesn't smell like anything, it won't taste like anything. Most important produce-selecting tip my mother ever taught me.
posted by headspace at 5:23 PM on October 24, 2008

Old fashioned as this sounds, the only ways to learn to pick produce are 1) trial and error, which means composting quite a bit of money; and 2) asking someone. That's right. Just go up to that old lady or dorky young man -- anyone who's actually paying attention to what they're doing and not just grabbing apples on the run -- and ASK THEM. "Excuse me, what is that? How do you pick a good one?" What do you do with that?" A grocery store is a fairly safe environment for most people, and I'm betting you'll get help 9 times out of 10. We all like to be asked our opinion, after all (SEE: metafilter, popularity of).

And headspace may actually be a lot more sensitive to smells than I am, but my experience is that many of the best fruits and vegetables, even directly from my garden, don't smell like anything until you cut them open; the exceptions are berries and other soft fruits.
posted by kestralwing at 5:45 PM on October 24, 2008

Safeway used to have Tony Tantillo guides in the produce section. You might want to go and check for them, then exit the Safeway and go somewhere with decent produce. I thought his guide was pretty useful - he also has a lot of info on his website.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 7:20 PM on October 24, 2008

Oh, and most places, even supermarkets, will let you try a sample before you buy - just ask.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 7:21 PM on October 24, 2008

This is one random piece of info rather than a reference, but it's relevant in Northern California right now: the large, overgrown-looking butternut squashes are the sweetest ones.
posted by needs more cowbell at 8:23 PM on October 24, 2008

For apples, at least in this area, red delicious and gala are rarely good; the best, in the sense of being consistently good, are golden delicious and fuji. Smell the apples and if they have nice fragrance, they are usually good.

Carrots: buy organic, imho. Cheap and taste much better than regular ones.

Iceberg lettuce: bad because it often has small brown streaks on it inside and you can't see them when you are buying. Romain, redleaf and greenleaf are better.

Bananas: organic ones, when you can find them, are much better. I don't buy regular ones because more often than not they don't taste that good.

Strawberries: I don't buy them at all, they're never good around here.

Cucumbers: Kirbys are very rarely good, you know they're good if they look really fresh and firm and not-beat-up. The other type of cucumber that's common - I don't remember the name - is good if it's firm and the skin is mostly intact.

Tomatoes: the best ones are small ones on a vine. If they are fresh and good, they will have a strong tomato smell. The good ones are almost always expensive!

Zucchini: same deal as cucumbers, firm and the skin should be intact.

Grapes: really hard to pick good ones, you just never know. Some green grocers will never have good grapes, I know only one place that usually has good grapes but not always.

Watermelon: the vine has to be dried up. If it's cut, the insides should be cracked a little bit, this shows that it's ripe. If it looks and feels soggy, it's too ripe.

Melons: I've heard that you should smell them and if they have nice fragrance, often they will be good. No fragrance, probably not ripe. I don't buy them often.

Broccoli: Firm and vibrant green color. If it's really dark green and a little soggy, it's not fresh. Organic broccoli is noticeably better.

Cabbage: red type is tastier and looks nicer.

Brussels sprouts: hard to tell if they're good or not. It's better to cut them into little pieces and cook like that rather then cook and eat whole, but if you bake them and they're good, they're really tasty when whole.

Mango: only red variety is good. I've never found yellow/small mango that didn't taste like crap. It's hard to pick out good ones, anyway - they have to be soft but not too soft, and the color has to be red/yellow/orange and must look really nice. The prettiest mango is probably the tastiest, as long as it's right degree of softness.

Potatoes: red type with thin skin has the best taste whether it's baked or stewed or soup'ed.

Fresh dates are the best kind of food in the world, period.

Oranges have to look nice, have good golden-orange color, not greenish, and nice round shape. But I'm still never 100% sure about oranges.

With tangerines you have to go by firmness and color and shape, most important is that it's not too firm and not too soft, but it's hard to be sure. About half of them will turn out bad anyway.

That's all I could think of.
posted by rainy at 4:48 AM on October 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

I would take a nice bottle of wine to the local produce wholesaler (or small produce market), hand it to the buyer and say... "teach me how to pick good produce"....
posted by HuronBob at 6:04 AM on October 25, 2008

Melons: I've heard that you should smell them and if they have nice fragrance, often they will be good. No fragrance, probably not ripe. I don't buy them often.

Yup! For honeydew, they should smell sweet and have a grainy/bumpy surface feel.

That's the entirety of my produce knowledge.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:45 AM on October 25, 2008

Visit the farmers market every week. You'll start to get an idea of what's in season. One of the problems with purchasing at the grocery is that most markets stock the same fruit all year. They end up picking things that store/transport well (red delicious apples), are constantly available (oranges) or are out of season and command a premium price (strawberries in December). The things that make fruit appealing to a grocery make it less flavorful to a consumer.

The farmers markets generally allow you to sample everything. Also, they put out samples of varieties of the same produce when that produce is in season. Right now, it's apples. Last week the market had samples of Fuji, Braeburn, Honeycrisp, Jonagold, Winesap and Northern Spy. You really need to taste different varieties to appreciate how unique they are. (I'm eating a perfect sweet/tart Jonagold right now.) Of course, since apples are good now I know that satsumas will be here soon. Sweet, delicious satsumas...drool.

Also, if you go to the farmer market consistently, the vendors will know you and steer you toward the best fruit.
posted by 26.2 at 7:56 AM on October 25, 2008

a pineapple is ripe if you can pluck a leaf from its crown with ease
posted by woodway at 6:10 PM on October 25, 2008

I keep the CUESA charts on seasonal vegetables and fruits bookmarked on my iPhone as a reference.
posted by junesix at 2:51 AM on October 26, 2008 [1 favorite]