Avocado

Avocado: freshness and ripeness guide

Avocados are climacteric and are picked hard and unripe, so they finish ripening off the tree — the rock-hard fruit in the bin is the normal starting state, not a defect. For Hass, the skin is the clearest clue: it shifts from bright grass-green (hard, days away) through a darker green to a deep purple-black when ripe, so to have avocados ready later in the week, buy firm, bright-green fruit free of dents and let it ripen on the counter at room temperature over two to five days. To speed things up, put the avocados in a loosely closed paper bag, or add a banana or apple to the bag — the ripening fruit releases ethylene that hastens softening — and check daily. Refrigeration does the opposite, slowing ripening to a near halt, so keep avocados you want to ripen out of the fridge.

For an avocado to eat today, judge it by feel rather than by colour alone, since skin tone varies and a dark avocado can still be unripe inside. Cradle the fruit in your palm and press gently with the whole hand, not your fingertips, which bruise the flesh: a ripe avocado yields evenly to light pressure without feeling mushy. The stem test confirms it — flick off the small dried nub at the top, and if the spot underneath is green the fruit is ripe and good, while brown underneath means it is overripe. Once ripe, an avocado holds only a day or two at room temperature, but moving it to the refrigerator buys an extra two to three days at peak.

An avocado is past its prime when it feels mushy or loose in the skin, a press leaves a dent that does not spring back, or dark sunken blotches appear on the surface; cut open, overripe flesh shows brown or grey stringy patches and may smell sour or fermented rather than fresh and nutty. A few brown threads can be cut away, but widespread discolouration or any rancid smell means it is done. One Edmonton-specific caution: avocados here are imported and arrive hard, and a ripening avocado left in a freezing vehicle in winter suffers chilling injury — the skin blackens prematurely while the inside stays hard and grey-streaked and never ripens properly — so carry them indoors promptly in cold weather and refrigerate only once they are already ripe.

Sources:

• California Avocado Commission — How to tell when an avocado is ripe. https://www.californiaavocado.com/avocado101/how-to-tell-when-an-avocado-is-ripe
• Hass Avocado Board (Love One Today) — How to ripen and store avocados. https://loveonetoday.com/how-to/ripen-store-avocados/
• UC Davis Postharvest Technology Center — Avocado: recommendations for maintaining postharvest quality. https://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/produce-facts-sheets/avocado