SC - selecting fruits and vegetables

[Philip & Susan Troy]

"Laura C. Minnick" wrote:
> 
> Stefan li Rous wrote:
> 
> > No one has answered the main question of my message, though. I was looking
> > for suggestions on how to select the best fruits and vegetables in the
> > loose produce stacks at the grocery or farmer's market.
> 
>  Follow around the older women- 60-70 is my guess, and ask their advice.
> They'd probably be tickled to have a 'young fellow' asking their
> opinion! And they usually know... at least my gramma is better at
> produce than I am (and I'm pretty good...)
> 
> 'Lainie

Just watch out for the old ladies that squeeze and pinch everything, a
la "Tampopo"; you'll wind up in jail, and the worst part will be having
to explain that you were just trying to learn which were the good cantaloupes...

Seriously, Stefan, what you asked was a difficult question to answer
because the parameters are different for every vegetable and fruit. Much
as it kills me to suggest it, I wouldn't be at all surprised if there
were some kind of quick reference on <shudder>
http://www.marthastewart.com  . See if there's anything about choosing
produce at the USDA site. Another good place to look would be, if you
have such things where you are, a farmer's market, usually sponsored by
your state's Department of Agriculture And Markets (okay, that's what
New York State has; YMMV). They will often print up little flyers on the subject.

You might also look and see if any authors such as, for example, Bruce
Cost (who has a wonderfully encyclopedic tome on Asian produce), have
written something that answers your questions. You might also check
vegetarian, organic and/or whole food cookbooks, the rationale being if
you're going to eat only vegetables, you don't want to eat bad ones. 

In general, in the case of fruits, there should be a pronounced fruit
aroma (presumably of the fruit that it is!), especially if the fruit is
at or near room temperature. Remember part of the fruit's job is to
attract animals that'll spread the seeds around. Fruit and vegetables
should [almost] never feel light for their size; this is something best
learned by experience, but in general you want denser fruits and veggies
that are heavier than the others of their approximate volume. You don't
want to find a big empty space filled with caterpillars or something,
hence this warning, not to mention getting more food for your money.
Melons and things which do legitimately have a cavity, you want to have
thick walls and a lot of flesh, so again you want them to be heavy. Some
should be squeezable (NOT a la "Tampopo"!), others, such as quinces and,
of course, turnips, won't be, ideally. Apples of almost all types, some
pears, and quinces, as I've said, in addition to most root vegetables,
will be pretty hard. (Soft, wiggly root vegetables indicates either that
they're dried out or that they've been frozen. Same for green beans and
asparagus, which, BTW, should neither be the subject of sexual fantasy
nor pencil-thin. Awright, I bet I'm in trouble for that one. Please form
an orderly line; everyone will get a shot at me in the order in which
you queue up.)

As you can see, I could probably go on like this for, well, maybe
forever. You can either approach this problem by looking for specific
information about, say, turnips, which I'm sure lots of people on this
list can help with, or try one of the other, more comprehensive methods above.
 
HTH...

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com