UNIVERSITY PARK, (Centre Co.) Health-conscious Ameri cans are eating more varieties of fruit than ever before, yet many consumers are at a loss when it comes to determining ripeness. A typical shopper might buy a bunch of green bananas and store them in a fruit bowl with apples and pears, only to return a few days later to find his bananas soft er than a one-minute egg. “Sometimes, even I can’t tell how ripe something is by just looking at it,” says Kathleen Evensen, associate professor of postharvest physiology in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. “It's best to find what you like and then look for the characteristics of that fruit.” Evensen says the best way to ensure tasty fruit is to know how it ripens. She explains that horticul turists have divided fruit into two categories: climacteric and non climacteric. Climacteric fruit (apples, pears, tomatoes, avocados, bananas, peaches, nectarines and other Ike Grown Mans Cancfy Store. 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Climacteric fruit also emits a colorless gas called ethyl ene, which acts as a ripening agent. “Ripening apples, pears and bananas can give off a lot of ethyl ene,” Evensen says. “In an enclosed area like a fruit bowl, mixed fruit can ripen very quickly,” she adds. “In fact, if you put a ripe banana in a bag with an apple, the banana will ripen the apple—but the apple will smell like a banana” Non-climacteric fruit (citrus fruits, grapes, strawberries and small berries) is ripe when picked and does not give off ethylene unless the fruit is infected by a fungus. Evensen says these fruits do not improve with age. “You buy them, you refrigerate them and then you eat them,” Evensen says. “For instance, strawberries should be refrigerated immediate ly, even if the berries have some white on top. They are never going to get any riper.” Evensen warns that ripening For The Put Of’touTKit IWusedTimcl Merer st/hl WES STAUFFER ENGINES & EQUIPMENT 23 Rlaaaant VMlay Rd. 717-738-4218 HOLLINGER’S LAWN & GARDEN EQUIP. Ephrata, Pa. 717-73 E-1131 717-388-2710 Harahay, PA 717-833-4080 fißfi GAP POWER EQUIPMENT Comar of Rt 30 a Rt 8(7 717-442-8870 Hamburg SHARTLESVILLE FARM SERVICE R 0 1,80X13(2 810-488-1028 Jonaatown BLUE MOUNTAIN ENTERPRISES, INC. Rt 72 South 717-888-3884 When Is We you do m though w i Wd tasy here rung mad precision speed am But think a ci or that all are alike, one of th ers listed Beti talk to at man wh( owns a Stihl He’ give you more en thusiastic sales pitcl than any ad we coi .ever write s/jW br itx> Pmvt rfut huh f putfeWowtf And vihudum svsltm low undM>/i»rmitv W99W GUTSHALL’S INC. Loyavllla, M-Carllala 717-788-4343 717-243-2313 Mvaratowp EBLING LAWN & GARDEN SERVICE (M E. 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If tomatoes still show some green, leave them out to ripen. In many cases, refrigeration will stop the production of ethyl ene in apples and some pears, giv ing these fruits a longer shelf life once they're purchased. ipronuse. MARTIN HARDWARE & EQUIPMENT CO. Rt <Oll 1/2 Mlloo South of SehMttaratown, M 717-S4S-SSI7 Shlopanabura LEINBACH FARM EQUIP. 1120Rltnor Hwy. 717-532-6511 Tamaouß CHARLES S. SNYDER, INC. rd s 717-3 M-5345 Hancock. MD HANCOCK BLOCK TRUE VALUE 220 Fulton St 301-S7S-7242 ENFIELD EQUIPMENT INC 720 Whoilw School Rd. 301-S7S4OSO To Eat? Apples are picked at what growers call “optimum maturity,” just before they start to ripen. The fruit is then stored at low tempera tures and with low levels of oxy gen and carbon dioxide (called “controlled atmosphere”) to retard ripening. “Apples can be kept by growers for 12 to 14 months in controlled atmosphere storage,” Evensen says. “If you buy something that’s not as ripe as you would like, just leave it out for a while and then refrigerate it,” Evensen says. “Growers are producing fruit that is firmer, in order to stand up to shipping, so it’s harder for con sumers to really tell if it has reached the right ripeness,” Evensen says. Non-climacteric fruit such as oranges, lemons, grapefruit and limes can be treated with ethylene as well, but the gas only makes the fruit’s rind turn from green to a color consumers are familiar with. “That’s called de-greening, but that doesn’t affect the taste of the fruit. It will taste the same the moment you pick it from the tree as it will after you’ve bought it in a store a week later,” Evensen says. Another indicator of ripeness is what fruit experts call “ground color,” Evensen explains. Ground color is the level of green color still in the fruit. Simply put, the less green you see, the riper the Christmas In Lititz LITITZ (Lancaster Co.) The tenth annual Tour of Homes features eight of Lititz’s finest homes, a church, an historical educational building, and a con servancy and museum in the greater Lititz area. The Christmas In Little House Tour is Saturday, December 10, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The homes offer an interesting range of styles, size, and age. Included are an elegant Virginia Tidewater style, a lovely Geor gian, a unique Victorian, an idyl- Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 12, 1994-819 Kiwis also can show ripeness through ground color. “You can see green beneath all that fuzzy stuff,” Evensen assures. Watermelon ripeness is harder to determine, Evensen says. “The best method is to knock on them. They’re supposed to sound kind of hollow.” Folk wisdom about ripening fruit, like sticking a nail into the bottom of a pear or apple, is largely baseless. “If you puncture fruit it will produce ethylene, but who would want to eat it after a nail has been in it,” she said. Still, Evensen says that one bad apple really does spoil the whole bunch. “A rotten apple will overripen the fruit near it and pass on any disease to its neighbors,” she said. House Tour lie country bed and breakfast, an historic “oldie” Pennsylvania Field Stone, and more. From traditional to contemporary, the tour offers something for every one. Tickets may be purchased in advance for $5, $6 the day of the tour. Bus tickets may be pur chased for $8 advance by Decem ber 1, 1994. The bus departs from St. Paul’s Lutheran Church at 12:00 noon and returns at approx. 4:15 p.m. The church is located at 200 W. Orange St. fruit. For example, a Golden Deli cious apple can be quite green in a store bin, losing that color over time until it turns yellow; The trick, Gvensen says, is to find out what stage of ripeness suits your taste. The taste of some climacteric fruits, such as melons, do not improve much after harvest, because they get most of their fla vor from the plant’s vine. For cantaloupes, shoppers can smell the fruit or look at ground color beneath the rough exterior of the melon. “If it doesn’t smell like a cantaloupe, it’s not ripe," she says.
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