How to Pick Ripe Pineapples & Bananas

Video Transcript

"Hi! Christie Ferretti here with Expert Village talking to you about how to pick fresh produce. Today we're talking about pineapples and bananas. Every wonder how to know if this pineapple right here is going to be sweet when you get home? A couple of different tips that I can give you to ensure that the pineapple that you take home is going to be one that you actually want to eat. If you take a look at this pineapple here you got a lot of dark green colors, this pineapple is not quite ready to be cut. It's not going to be as sweet, it's not going to be as juicy. If you look towards the bottom the yellow starts to come through as this color comes to the top of the pineapple that?s really more what your looking at. Once it goes from a yellow color it's going to turn to more of a dark brown. Dark browns overripe. What you really need to consider is when are you going to eat this. If your making a fruit salad that night for some guests or for your family you going to want to chose something that has more of the lighter color going through the pineapple and what your going to see is a nice color on the inside a lot of flavorful juice and when you look here you still have a nice consistent color through. If this pineapple were overripe where it starts to go bad is right her in the center. So that?s how you know. It's going to take a little trial and error to begin with. The other thing you can do is pull the stems. If these stems release easily such as this one did, more than likely this pineapple is going to be ready to eat. When it comes to bananas everybody has their own philosophy. My mom loves bananas once their brown mushy, can't go there. Mine have to be almost green. Its really up to you, it also again depends on what you're going to do with it. If your going to make banana bread grab the ones that are wrapped in red tape for a quick and easy sale their cheaper their going to be more flavorful more sweet; their going to make a great banana bread. Not so good on your cereal. If your going to eat these bananas within two or three days again go for the green ones they are going to ripen pretty quickly on your counter they do only last about two or three days. Buy them both together make a great fruit salad."