Fruit: When is it ripe, can you pick green, is it over-ripe?

Dear Folks,

I have been harvesting different fruits and even potatoes from the garden this past couple of weeks and I thought about how I/we know when to pick.

Long time gardeners learn over time.  I thought some tips for those new-to-growing may help avoid disappointment, except for the birds they are always going to add to disappointment.

And they can be one of the deciding factors on when to pick fruit.  More on that below.

First up is my Barbados (Acerola) Cherry tree. This is not a true cherry like many are familiar with.  First, it grows here in the Valley were many of the sweet types will not.  It produces cherries about 3 times a year with the heaviest production right now.

The beauty of the Barbados, because the birds love them, is they can be picked as soon as they have some red color and will continue to ripen at room temperature*.  They ripen fully to a deep, deep red.  They have an apple, sweet / tart taste and I really enjoy them while my sweet was disappointed they were not the sweet cherry type.  They do have 3 large seeds in the middle so I either pop the whole think in my mouth and chew gently to dislodge the seeds, or eat around the center holding like an apple.

*ROOM Temperature ripening - I discovered some years that the old put on the counter or put in paper bags produced limited results.  It may be our desert conditions or something else. But, I accidentally discovered THE perfect ripening method for undamaged fruit (damage will cause them to rot, not just ripen).  I had rinsed some peaches that were "sort of ripe" and put them on my dishrack and just left them there for a couple of days because I was doing other things.  When I picked them up the wonderful aroma told me they were ripe and boy were they delicious.

So, ripen on a rack (not metal) which produces air circulation around the fruit - place so they do not touch each other. (see my apricot picture below). I actually have a special glassware flat rack I use for ripening fruit.

Apricots will ripen if you pick early BUT - they have to have color on them.  If you pick green they will stay green and hard.

Apricots grow much like peaches singly or in clusters (depends on whether you thinned but that is another story).  We know when the apricot are getting perfectly ripe when I come out and there are 1 or more on the ground under the tree. We have a lot of duff under our trees intentionally so that softens the fall, but we find some had already been pecked.  I pick up ones that are undamaged then go around the tree and, holding my hand under them tap them.  If they are perfectly ripe they fall right into my hand as 2 in the picture did - the other 2 were already on the ground. Apricots have a very short and fast season so we never want to let them go to waste.

Birds are a serious challenge when you are growing fruit.  They want it too and as my sweetie notes, they will go to one peach or apricot peck a hole and move on to another un-touched one.

In the Peach collage if you look at the upper right corner of the top picture you will see the bird damage.  My sweetie grew up on a peach and walnut farm and not waiting until they are perfectly ripe to pick, just feels so wrong to him. However with the birds ever diligent on damaging the fruit, and the fact that they will ripen if picked early - he decided to pick all the remaining fruit.  We picked the best near ripe and put on the rack and we sliced, sugared and froze the remaining ones in portions for later use.  Still so much nicer than store bought.

So many of the peaches brought into the supermarkets are picked not quite ripe, that should not be an issued, BUT we have found them 'pithy' when my guy could not resist buying them when Our season is over and is constantly disappointed.  I believe they have chilled the peaches for transport at too low a temperature.

I will mention tomatoes as another fruit which will continue to ripen if picked a little unripe.  I do not have any to show you - just a few of the very tiny cherry tomatoes - the rest are not near ripe yet. Tomatoes were the other fruit I discovered ripened nicely on the rack around the time of my peach-ripening discovery.

Mulberries and Strawberries are a fruit which does NOT continue ripening after you pick them.  They are fully ripe when they pull easily - don't tug - from the plant.  I have been harvesting Mulberries for over a month now, but it is comping to an end.  The strawberries are in the middle of their major production right now. I get about 3 fruiting times a year from this variety.  Because I had to focus on peaches and other harvesting, I've had to harvest strawberries as I had some time and I dearly want to make strawberry jam with our wonderful White and Red Alpine variety, so I am collecting in small batches as I have time and freezing them.  When I have enough later on it is JAM TIME! :)

One last fruit I want to mention is Eggplant.  My preferred variety is Listada De Gandia and like the White Casper I have also grown, is tender and tasty and does not need the traditional salting like the big purple variety and you can eat the skin, if you choose.  I like to let them get to about 5-6 inches or so in length before picking, while they still have the glossy surface.

You have to watch your eggplant - when they start to turn yellowish they are getting over-ripe.  Some can still be edible but the more yellow they get the more bitter they get until they are inedible. I took the picture on the 8th of May and harvested it today at about 4+ inches because it was just barely starting to show yellow.  It will be fine.  Bottom line always pick eggplant which is glossy and not turning color.

Not a fruit but a root - I did harvest my Potatoes too.  Here in the Valley we harvest potatoes late April to early June after the plants start to decline.  While "some potatoes" will grow during the summer, they do not do well (Except for sweet potatoes but that is another species) in our heat.  I save the smallest potatoes in a cardboard box in the crisper (away other types of moist veggies) for replanting next January 1st.  Future potato salad and more :)

Next I have to cut garlic scapes to ready the garlic for final forming of the heads we all love and use.

I hope you are enjoying your garden.

Stay safe, look our for yourself and each other, be patient and be kind.

-- Catherine, The Herb Lady

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