help i have fruity issues!!

I love pears too! I tend to like them a little on the hard side, so I just buy them firm and anything after that is fine with me for a few days. Cantellope, I go by firmness and smell the spot where it was attached to the vine. If I can smell the melon it is overripe for me. Watermelons I just buy them cut in half so I can see them. Not sure if any of this helps.

At this time of year it is hard to buy fruit that is ripe. You need to buy it and let it sit on your counter for a few days for it to ripen more. And that is if it will ripen more as some fruits need to be on the plant to enable it to ripen. I have the same problem as you and I don;t want to wait for it to ripen, or go bad first. It is quite frustrating. So these days the only fruit I have been buying is bananas and apples and oranges. I bought some pears and some strawberries about a week ago and ended up throwing them in the garbage as they went rotten before they could ripen. And most fruits are so expensive these days its a real shame. Well, good luck with your fresh fruit hunting. I, personally, will wait till June before I buy anymore fruit other than my bananas and apples and oranges.

I only know that you are supposed to knock on a melon to see if it's ripe or not...if it sounds hollow it's supposed to be ready to be eaten...past that I don't know much about fruits!

I've never come across ripened pears at a grocery store EVER. I think the only way to deal with them is to have a store of paper bags in the house, and put them in them for a few days, just before you're ready to eat them. As for melons, I only ever get watermelons, and I've never had issues with them. I can't wait for the big ones to be out in the stores for nice and cheap soon!

Hey Sissy! I am not that great at picking ripe fruit either! In fact I usually pick melons that aren't ripe when I get them so that they can take their time to ripen! As for pears, if they aren't ripe when you get them they don't take that long to be ready to eat! If you ever want to speed up the process of ripening just put them into a paper bag! That will speed up the ripening process!

Nothing like paying 6.00 for a Pineapple only to get it home and cut it to find out it's not ripe. I found out that if the center leaves in the top of Pineapple pull out easily, it's ripe. Cantaloupe, all you have to do is find the round part where the stem came off. Scrape it a little and if it smells like cantaloupe it's ripe. Other than that, just wait 3 or 4 days before you eat them and they should be ripe. Or, if you havn't tried the bags of pre cut frozen fruit, they are very good.

farmers market in August may have good pears, other than this, you are not going to have good luck, because most fruits are delivered to the market when green...

cantalope...matt squeezes them and smells them. And if they are a lil squishy and smell like a melon then they are ride i guess. I dont eat pears so I dont know how to tell if they are ripe or not. Maybe its holds true to those to..squishy and smell like a pear? lol

Hi, Sissygirl! You can try to buy pears that don't have any bruises or knicks that would look like the pear is rotten. And you can try to find pears that are firm and strong. Make sure that the green coloring of the pear is not too pale. My best bet of my choice would be to buy pears that are bagged up. I prefer to have pears that are not open out in the sight made visible. That way, you won't have to worry about the pears being touched by many people. I hope that this helps!

Pears need to "give" a little when yo squeeze them with your thumb. Those are the ripe ones. For melons, you have to push on the spot where they were attached to the vine. If it gives a little, it's ripe. Some people use the old "thump" test, kinda knocking on the melon to hear the resonance but I've never been able to handle that method. If it gives, just a little, where it grew from the vine (the belly button, I call it) it's ripe. Cantaloupes are easier... the webbing on the skin should be tan, not green. In a few months, you should come on over... I have pear trees planted. I planted them 2 years ago and I just MIGHT get some fruit this year!

I always smell the fruit first. Then I check it for firmness or softness depending on what it is. With pears it would be softness. With melons you want one that smells like it is ripe and the end where it was taken from the vine is clean and not ripped as if it were unripe and torn. If they are too mushy they may be over ripe and may not last long.

If you like watermelons, knock on them and if they sound hollow then they're ready to eat. Strawberries if you're not allergic to them are a great choice if you like to pick out fruits. Just pick pears if you love them. Other than that, look up methods online where you can search methods on choosing ripe fruits that are ready to eat. :D Nice Draik from Neopets by the way. :p

I've never had a problem with pears - but I shop at Whole Foods for my produce that I don't get through my CSA. Their produce is usually pretty good. As for things like cantaloupe and honeydew melons, they should be heavy for their size (heavier than they look). They'll all be about the same size, so just pick up a few until you find one that you think is the heaviest, and that one is your best bet!

You can always try putting pears in a brown paper bag or wrapped in newspaper. They seem to ripen faster this way. You can also put a ripe apple or banana in the bag- it seems to make it ripen even faster.