How to Tell When Produce is Ripe
by Ken Immer
Apr 06, 2025
INSIDER EXCLUSIVES
Recipes:: Graw Crumbs & Breaded Eggplant (gf)
When purchasing produce, the biggest question is often: “When is ______ ripe?”. A better question to ask is: “Should I buy it before it’s ripe or when it’s ripe?” Sometimes buying foods before they are ripe can be a good strategy, if you ask this question first: “When am I going to prepare it, and do I need to store it before using it, and how long?”. We end up wasting a lot of food because it may go ‘past its prime’ before we eat it.
We can save money and time by using ripeness as a purchasing strategy rather than just a countdown clock till you throw it away.
Here are a few items that can be purchased at varying degrees of ripeness or being ready to eat:
- Avocado
- Ready to eat: When the skin is uniformly dark, and when squeezed gently it gives a bit, but is not mushy. The small nub of a stem should still be attached, but should come off easily with your finger.
- Timeline: Avocados start of green and very hard, but they do ripen quickly, usually within 3-4 days if purchased green. Once they are ready to eat, they can be refrigerated for 3-4 more days, whole and uncut.
- Storage: Do not refrigerate until ripe! Countertop bowl away from sunlight. Storing in a paper bag can accelerate ripening.
- Banana
- Ready to eat: Most people like to eat a banana when it is uniformly yellow, with minimal dark spots. However, they can be eaten until well spotted, as they get sweeter and softer the longer they sit.
- Timeline: Bananas, as avocados, start off green and very hard, but often ripen at different rates depending on a number of factors. On average a green banana will be ready to eat within 5-7 days. A ‘green tip’ banana which is, as it sounds, just green at the top near the stem may take 1-2 days to become completely yellow.
- Storage: Bananas will ripen slowly in a refrigerator, however, the skin will darken quicker than flesh becomes soft. Again, similar to avocados, they do well on the countertop away from the sun. Bananas are often bunched with a plastic wrapped around the stem ends, and this extends their ripening time. Once removed they ripen much quicker.
