Acerolas
Also known as the Barbados or West Indies cherries, are an excellent source of Vitamin C, and a fair source of beta-carotene. Acerolas are round to oblate, cherry-like but with 3 lobes. They are bright red (rarely yellow-orange) with thin skin, easily bruised. The pulp is juicy, acid to sub-acid occasionally nearly sweet, with a delicate flavor and apple notes. The fruit is very high in Vitamin C, up to 4,000 mg per 100 g fresh weight, but typically around 1,500 mg C. Green fruits have twice the Vitamin C level of mature fruits.
Acerolas are typically unusable 3-5 days after being removed from the tree. Unrefrigerated fruit develops mold quickly The best uses are direct eating, jams and jellies, and syrups. Juices, which are popular in Brazil, do not hold their sensory characteristics for extended periods. The fruit has also been used for baby food, as a supplement source for Vitamin C, as an ice cream and popsickle ingredient, and in many home recipes. Frozen fruit falls apart when thawed.

APPLES
When buying apples, look for fruit with flesh that feels firm and tight beneath the skin. There should be no soft spots, dark bruises, or holes. Do not be deceived by size. Larger apples tend to mature faster and thus can be mealier than small ones. For fast ripening, keep apples at room temperature. For longest keeping, refrigerate sound apples in perforated plastic bags or keep in a dry, cold place-32°F (0°C)to 40°F (5°C).
To peel an apple, use a swivel-bladed vegetable peeler-a knife takes too much flesh.
To core, cut in quarters lengthwise and then cut out the core from each piece with a down-and-up motion. To core a whole apple, push an apple corer through the center from the top, aimed at the blossom end below.
Superbly flavored apples should be served cool. Apples that are light on flavor, like Red Delicious, are best cold-twice as crisp as at room temperature.
Mellow the flavor of cooking apples by leaving them at room temperature for a day or two before using.An apple of poor flavor can be improved with the addition of lemon juice and a pinch of cinnamon in cooking, but remember that nothing can really compensate for natural flavor.
To make applesauce without having to peel or add sugar, use naturally sweet Braeburns and Golden Delicious.
In cooking, unless you are working with one of the great eating apples, a blend of sweet and tart, spicy and mild, will give dimension to flavor and often texture. And when you have time, buy two or three types of each of the eating apples available and have a taste test, making different combinations until you find something terrific. Consider that there are hundreds of flavor and aroma molecules in every bite. Apples can be baked, broiled, frittered, grilled, poached, sautéed, steamed, and stir-fried Apples have a special affinity for vanilla and almond, apricots and quinces, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, coriander, rosemary, sage, and lemon.
Apples are classed according to how they are used.Eating (dessert) apples are, as a rule, crisp or crunchy, juicy, sweet or sweet-tart, with an intriguing aroma and complex flavor.
Cooking (or culinary) apples are usually firmer and on the tart side, although they may be juicy and touched with sweetness. Most apples contain between 10 and 14 percent sugar. Tart apples just contain more malic acid, which blunts their sweetness, The texture of an apple's cooked flesh can be fluffy as in a baked Rome Beauty; tender but intact,as in a Jonagold; or thick, as in Newton Pippin applesauce.A few splendid varieties like Golden Delicious and Gravenstein are suited to both eating and cooking. True cider apples (like Kingston Black and Fox Whelp) are high in acid and tannin and thus not fit for eating fresh but give cider sparkling flavor and depth. There are also a few apples good for both cider and cooking, like Mclntosh, Northern Spy, and Cortland. Crab apples are a different species altogether. They are tiny (an inch or so wide) and very tart. They are excellent for pickling and jellying because they contain so much pectin.
Knowing the characteristics of the apples at the market saves time and energy and spares frustration over collapsed baked apples, mushy slices in pie, and bland pplesauce. Here are some favorite apples grown domestically. Uses are in order of what the apple does best.
Akane: juicy, crisp, tart, white flesh. Eating, sauce (cook with the skin on, then strain), drying; use within 4 weeks.
Arkansas Black: crisp, firm, juicy, fragrant, golden flesh. Eating, sauce, cider; keeps 6 months or more, gaining in flavor.
Baldwin: crisp, coarse, juicy, spicy, yellow flesh. Cider, pie, sauce, eating; keeps up to 6 months.
Black Gilliflower or Sheepnose: rich and sweet. Excellent for drying, can be baked; use within 2 months.
Braeburn: crisp, firm, rich, sweet-tart, yellow flesh. Eating, sauce, pie; keeps 6 months or more.
Bramley or Bramley's Seedling: firm, coarse, juicy, tangy-sweet flesh high in vitamin C; baking, sauce, cider; keeps 6 months or more.
Cahille Blacc d'Hiver: a sixteenth-century apple, a French favorite-tender, lightly tart, spicy, yellowish white flesh, higher in vitamin C than oranges. Eating, tarts, sauce, cider; keeps at least 3 months, its flavor mellowing.
Cortland: crisp, very juicy, fragrant, tangy, white flesh. Eating, salad (the flesh stays white), pie, sauce, cider, drying; keeps at least 2 months.
Cox's Orange Pippin: firm, juicy, richly flavored. Eating, pie, sauce, cider; keeps about 3 months.
Empire: crisp, juicy, sweet-tart, creamy white flesh. Eating, cider; keeps 4 to 6 weeks.
Esopus Spitzenberg: crisp, fine-grained, juicy, fragrant, spicy, yellow flesh. Keeps 6 months or more.
Fuji: crisp, fine-grained, juicy, sweet, white flesh. Eating; keeps 6 months or more.
Gala: crisp, firm, fragant, sweet and mildly tart. Eating, cooking in butter, drying; keeps 3 months or more.
Golden Delicious: juicy, fragrant, and honey sweet. Eating, salad, sauce, tarts, cooking in butter, cider; keeps at least 2 months.
Granny Smith: crisp, juicy, from mildly tart to tart, white flesh. Pie, sauce, juice, baking; keeps up to 6 months. Gravenstein: crisp, fine-grained, juicy, slightly tart. Unexcelled for pie, sauce, baking, cider, and fine for eating; keeps 4 to 6 weeks.
Grimes Golden: fine-grained, juicy, fragrant, spicy, yellow flesh. Eating, sauce, pie, cider, drying, freezing; keeps about 3 months.
Idared: tender, juicy, fragrant, and lightly tart. Pie, sauce, baking, cooking, canning; keeps 6 months or more.
Jonagold: crisp, juicy, sweet-tart, yellow flesh. Eating, juice, pie, baking; keeps about 3 months.
Jonathan: crisp, fine-grained, juicy, slightly tart. Eating, sauce, pie, cider; use within 4 to 6 weeks.
Lady or Christmas Apple: very small, crisp, juicy, intensely sweet, white flesh. Eating, baking, cider (and centerpieces and wreaths); keeps 4 months or more.
Lodi or Improved Yellow Transparent: crisp, juicy, sweet-tart, white flesh. Sauce, pie; use within 2 weeks.
Macoun: firm, fragrant, juicy, white flesh, surpasses parent McIntosh's flavor. Eating, pie, sauce; keeps about 3 months.
McIntosh: tender, juicy, fragrant, spicy, tart. Eating, cider, sauce; keeps at least 2 months.
Melrose: rather coarse, juicy, sweet, white flesh. Keeps up to 6 months.
Mutsu or Crispin: crisp, juicy, spicy, lightly tart, white flesh. Eating, sauce, cider; keeps 6 months or more.
Newton Pippin or Pippin: moderately fine-grained, aromatic, and tart. Eating, pie, sauce, cider; keeps 5 months.
Northern Spy: very juicy, sprightly and sweet, high in vitamin C. Eating, baking, pie, sauce, cider, drying; keeps up to 5 months.
Red Delicious: crisp, juicy, mildly tart. Eating, cider; keeps 6 months or more.
Rhode Island Greening or Greening: crisp, juicy, rich, tart, greenish white flesh. Pie, sauce, drying, eating, cider; keeps 6 months or more.
Rome Beauty: crisp, firm, juicy, mildly tart. Baking, drying, cider; keeps at least 2 months.
Roxbury Russet: crisp, coarse-textured, tart-sweet, yellow-green flesh. Eating, pie, sauce, cider; keeps up to 6 months.
Spartan: crisp, firm, sweet-tart, white flesh. Superb eating; keeps up to 3 months, improving in flavor.
Stayman Winesap: firm, juicy, fragrant, winy greenish yellow flesh. Baking, sauce, cider; keeps at least 2 months.
Summer Rambo: crisp, very juicy, wing. Eating, sauce, drying, pie; use within 4 weeks.
Wealthy: very juicy, fragrant, winy, sweet. Eating, pie, sauce, cider, baking, preserves, freezing. Keeps up to 3 months.
Winesap: crisp, firm, very juicy, winy, yellow flesh. Eat-ing, cider, sauce, pie; keeps 6 months or more.
Wolf River: soft, slightly tart, creamy white flesh. Excellent for drying; use within 4 weeks.
York or York Imperial: crisp, coarse-grained, mildly tart. Pie, sauce, baking, cider; keeps 2 months.

APRICOTS
Should you come across ripe apricots of one of the great varieties-Royal or Blenheim-enjoy them out of hand or cut into a fruit cup, for these soft fruits are costly to pack and ship. If you live elsewhere, the best-tasting fruit will be the barely ripe ones you cook.
In selecting fruit, size is less important than variety and ripeness. if apricots are soft, juicy, and fragrant, eat them the same or next day. They will ripen after pick-ing,but fruit that is greenish yellow or does not have an apricot aroma will not have enough time to develop good flavor before it spoils. Ripen fruits by the paper bag method. They will keep in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Cooked apricots are delicious, since heat intensifies their flavor. For cooking, use just-ripe fruit. Cook apricots only long enough to soften them, for they are mushy if overcooked. Apricots can be baked or grilled, but poaching preserves their delicacy. Most recipes for peaches, nectarines, and plums apply to apricots. As with other stone fruits, a little orange juice or zest emphasizes the apricot flavor. Apricots have a special affinity for apples and almonds, close relatives in the rose family.

AVOCADOS
Is sometimes known as Alligator Pear. Grown in southern California and Florida, avocados are available year-round.
Choose an unblemished fruit that is heavy for its size, ideally one that is tender when gently pressed between your hands. Ripe avocados are rare at the market, so plan to buy them about 3 days before you will need them. Until it is cut, a stone-hard avocado will ripen by the paper bag method, in about that much time. Slightly overripe fruit can be used for mashing but not slicing. Refrigerate ripe fruits for up to 2 days.
Avocado flesh quickly darkens when exposed to air. This does not affect quality or flavor but mars the beauty of the fruit. To prevent darkening, immediately rub cut surfaces with a slice of citrus or blend citrus juice into mashed avocado (the more, the better). When preparing mashed avocado in advance, press heavy-duty plastic wrap on top and smooth out any air bubbles. Leaving the pit in an avocado half works because air cannot reach where the seed is, but placing a pit in a bowl of guacamole has no effect.
High in monosaturates, the oil content of avocados is second only to olives among fruits, and sometimes greater.
Avocados turn bitter when cooked, so enjoy them raw. When adding avocado to cooked dishes, do it at the last minute, off the heat.
Different types of avocados are:
West Indian: are enormous, smooth round, glossy green fruits that are low in oil and weigh up to 2 pounds.
Guatemalan: are medium ovoid or pear-shaped, pebbled green fruits that turn blackish-green when ripe.
Mexican: are small (6 - 10 ounces) with paper-thin skins that turn glossy green or black when ripe.

BANANAS
The banana is close to being the perfect fruit. It satisfies hunger pangs from the time its tips are green and its flesh is firm and faintly tart until its golden skin is speckled with brown and the fruit is creamy sweet. Most bananas at the market are from Central America and are abundant year-round. They are picked when fully developed but green. This is done even when fruits will be eaten locally, because the fruit ripens most satisfactorily off the tree. Two principal varieties come to us. The Gros Michel is big and long with a tapered tip and thick yellow skin. Connoisseurs describe its flavor as "adequate:" The Cavendish is shorter, squatter, and curved, with thinner yellow skin. Its flavor is preferred. However, there are over a hundred varieties of cultivated bananas across the world, and more and more are available here. Handsome red-skinned bananas have sweet, faintly pink flesh. Sabas and Brazilians are very straight and ripen to tartness. Finger-sized Manzano (or apple or finger) bananas have a sweet-sharp taste. Whatever the color, select plump bananas with vibrant-looking skin. If the skin looks dull, the fruit may have been damaged by cold and will not ripen. Bananas are susceptible to bruising, but superficial brown lines on the skin indicating nicks and scratches probably have not harmed the fruit inside. When a whole area on the skin is dark, it indicates the bruise is more than skin deep. Be sure the skin is intact-an opening in the envelope invites spoilage. Ripen bananas out of the sun at room temperature, turning them daily. For faster ripening, use the paper bag method. Ripe bananas can be refrigerated, although their skins will blacken. To prepare a banana, just peel it and remove the fibrous strings. When cutting up a banana, coat the pieces with citrus juice to keep them from darkening. Bananas are even sweeter after cooking. Green-tipped fruits hold their shape best (try them baked, grilled, broiled, and sautéed). Use fully ripe fruits for mashing and stirring into batters. Bananas can be frozen and also dried. See also Plantains in Vegetables.

Blackberries:
Picked firm, the many offspring of the wild Pacific blackberry are tart and good for canning and pies. Picked fully ripe, they are soft, fragrant, sweet, and best eaten raw. One form of blackberry or another is in season from June through mid-September.

Blueberries:
Blueberries are sweet with enough tang to make them interesting. Blue on the outside and light green on the inside, cultivated berries are much larger than their wild forebears. Maine's wild low-bush blueberries are small but intensely flavored. Choose plump, sound berries nicely covered with bloom, a whitish coating that preserves the moisture in blueberries and helps them keep longer than most other berries. As delicious as blueberries are raw, they are the perfect baker's berry (from pies to pancakes to muffins to cheese-cake topping). Blueberries both freeze and dry superbly and are good canned as well. They have little pectin but make luscious preserves and jams.

Boysenberries:
Boysenberries are long, maroon, and almost seedless. Their flavor is sweet-tart, rather like raspberries, with a distinctive fragrance. They are of excellent quality and good for all forms of cooking and preserving.

Brambles:
These are close relatives of blackberries and raspberries. American dewberries are round to oblong, bluish black, glossy, and sweet but milder than blackberries. Japanese wineberries are small, orange-red, shaped like raspberries, and have a tart flavor that makes good wine. Thimbleberries are bright reddish orange, thimble shaped, small, and seedy but also rich, tangy, and tasty.

Cape Gooseberries (Doha Berries, Golden Berries)
Related to Chinese lanterns and tomatillos, these berries are sweet without being cloying and make delicious preserves. These gooseberry sized berries grow individually in papery husks. When ripe, their skin glows like yellow tomatoes. They are sometimes available in spring from New Zealand, then again in the early fall from local plants. Select golden fruits, preferably still in their parchment colored husks. Leave the berries in the husks, as the wrapping protects them from spoiling. They are very long keeping when refrigerated. To serve, pull the berry from the husk and discard the husk. Rinse lightly, for they are sticky. The berries are good raw but most delicious poached in a light syrup for poaching Fruit, flavored with lemon. They will be tender in 3 minutes. They freeze and dry well. Some ground cherries resemble cape gooseberries enough to be twins.

Carambolas or Star Fruits
This tropical fruit with waxy yellow skin is an oval the size of a small cantaloupe. But rather than solid, it is airy, made of fleshy wings down its length. Thin crosswise slices of carambola reveal graceful pointed stars. The fruits are commercially grown in Florida and should be available autumn through winter. Carambolas are juicy, with the crisp succulence of an underripe plum. Depending on ripeness and the type (two are grown), their flavor can be tart, sweet tart, or watery. Some carambolas have reminded us of feijoas. Look for carambolas at Asian markets and fancy groceries. Ripe fruits are lightly brown along the tips of the ridge. Smell them: When only slightly overripe, a fruit can seem to be fermenting. If the fruit is deep yellow with no brown at the tips, it will ripen at room temperature. Avoid greenish fruits. Refrigerate ripe carambolas in a perforated plastic bag in the crisper. To serve, there is no need to peel or even to remove the thin seeds at the centers (although you may flick them out if you wish). Rinse, pat dry and slice crosswise about ¾ inch thick.Carambolas do not freeze, but they can well.

Cerimans
This fruit of the split leaf philodendron is also called a monstera. With rows of small hexagonal scales, the fruit looks like a long, thin, green pine cone. Wrap it in plastic wrap and ripen at room temperature until the entire rind is loose, 5 to 6 days. Remove it, then pull off the creamy pineapple banana-flavored pulp with a fork and refrigerate. Serve alone or with ice cream.

Cherimoyas or Custard Apples
From a distance, the green cherimoya looks like an upside down artichoke with rounded leaves. Up close, you find that the"leaves" are imprints in the leathery skin. The white flesh is the texture of firm custard and tastes something like banana and pineapple. The season is from November through April, peaking in February and March. They are grown in California and may be found in Asian markets or fancy groceries. Select fruit heavy for its size with no bruises or discolorations. The fruits will probably require further ripening. Let stand at room temperature out of the sun, turning frequently. It may take a week until the cherimoya is as soft as a ripe peach. Refrigerate and serve cold and raw in unpeeled wedges, accompanied with a slice of your favorite citrus. If not serving at once, brush the flesh with citrus juice to keep it from browning. Eat with a spoon, discarding the seeds and sprinkling with a tart juice to balance the sweet flesh. Cherimoya can also be cut into cubes and added to a fruit cup. This is not a cooking fruit, nor does it can or freeze well.

Cherries
A big bowl of unstemmed sweet cherries, is one of the joys of early summer. Bings are the favorite of commercial growers because they grow easily, taste good, and travel well. Fresh light-skinned Royal Anns and Rainiers are more fragile than Bings and are seen outside of cherry country only for short periods. Pitted raw sweet cherries are incomparable in salads, cold soups, fruit cups, quick breads, cakes, and sauces. But for a hot dessert or for filling a tart, briefly poach the fruits until their flesh is slightly softened. Sweet cherries are available late May through July; August fruits are from cold storage or of inferior quality. Pie, tart, or sour cherries, another variety, are tastier after cooking, since they are very acid and heat helps them absorb sweetening. Although most commercial sour cherries are canned, you may find fresh morellos, delightful with their red juice, or amarelles, with their clear juice, close to where they are grown. Sour cherries ripen a couple of weeks after sweet cherries. Montmorency, a morello, is the principal sour cherry in the USA. It is predominantly grown in New England, around the Great Lakes, and on the Great Plains. Heart-shaped Duke cherries are a sweet-and-sour cross. Their sprightly yellow flesh is good for cooking and for preserves.
All cherries are sent to market ripe. Choose them individually (never prepackaged) after tasting one for flavor. Select the largest, glossiest, plumpest, and firmest with the greenest stems. For sweet cherries, choose the darkest; for sour cherries, the brightest. Avoid stemless cherries-the wound is an invitation to bacteria, as evidenced when there is brown around the stem scar. If there are soft or spoiling cherries in a bin, do not buy any. The taste of mold can permeate surrounding fruit. To keep cherries, arrange them, without rinsing, in a single layer between paper towels and wrap in plastic. To prepare, rinse, stem, and pit with a cherry pitter. Push the plunger through the stem scar, pitting one by one into a small empty bowl. All fresh cherries may be canned, frozen, or dried, and all go well with poultry and pork.
Candied and maraschino cherries are pitted sweet cherries that have been bleached until colorless and then dyed red or green.

Citrons
Fresh citrons will not be found at the supermarket, but in citrus-growing parts of the country, they may turn up at a farmers' market. Citrons are in season through the year but predominantly in autumn. The Etrog citron looks like an elongated lemon; Buddha's Hand has long thick fingers, a curiosity. Citron is a venerable fruit, the hadar or goodly fruit of the Bible. just one fruit with its intense, long-lasting fragrance can perfume room after room. The peel is so thick it takes up half the fruit. In fact, the peel is what is used: candied citron peel is a mainstay of holiday baking.

Coconuts
If you live in coconut country, you know the delight of using the flower sap as well as the green and the mature fruit of this graceful palm. The kernel of the fruit, the part we enjoy, is encased in a smooth tan husk. It is usually removed before the coconut is sent to market, and what we buy is a round, hard, fibrous brown shell. Under the shell lies a thin skin. The white creamy meat beneath surrounds a pool of milky, faintly sweet liquid, refreshing to drink (many call this liquid coconut milk. Do not confuse it with the coconut milk called for in recipes, which is an infusion). As the fruit matures, the liquid diminishes. When they are ripe, coconuts fall from the tree. Fresh ripe coconuts are available year-round, with their peak season October through December.
When you want to make coconut layer cake, you will not regret the extra time and trouble given to dealing with a coconut. You will find the freshest coconuts in Asian and Hispanic groceries. Select the coconut heaviest for its size and the one whose liquid makes the loudest sound when you shake it because its meat will be moistest. Whole coconuts can be stored at cool room temperature, but once one is opened, the meat and liquid must be refrigerated.
To open a coconut, if it has a husk, drop it onto a hard surface. If it does not crack open enough so that the husk pulls away, repeat until it does or use a hand ax or hatchet. If the shell inside is green, the top can be lopped off with a large, heavy knife. The liquid within will be clear, and the greenish jellylike pulp makes ideal food for small children and invalids. To open the bard brown shell of a mature nut, pierce the two or three "eyes" at one end with a clean screwdriver, hammering it into them. Drain and refrigerate the liquid, being certain to use or freeze it within 24 hours. The liquid can be drunk as is over ice or used in pina coladas and similar drinks. (It is unlikely but possible that the liquid will taste sour instead of sweet-this indicates a spoiled coconut; discard it.)
Now tap the shell briskly all over with a hammer. The shell usually splits lengthwise, and the halves can be used as containers for serving food. If this does not work, the shell can be opened with heat (but this will fracture the shell). Bake the drained coconut at 375°F until it starts to crack, 20 to 25 minutes. When cool enough to handle, tap it all over with the hammer to release the meat, then set crack side up, cover with a towel, and hit the coconut hard on the crack. It will break open, and the meat will separate from the shell. Use the screwdriver to free any meat stuck to the shell. Remove the skin with a vegetable peeler, then hand-grate. Or cut into 1 inch pieces and pulse in a blender or food processor. To measure, pack coconut shreds lightly in the cup.
You may wish to make fresh coconut milk, the ingredient that makes so many Asian soups, sauces, curries, drinks, desserts, and candies incomparably suave. The milk is the infusion of grated mature coconut and boiling water or milk. The milk is similar to cow's milk to the extent that its fat rises to the top, the fat is saturated (most often true of animal fats), and it must be refrigerated because it has the same storage life as cow's milk. Pour 1 cup boiling water or milk (whole, low fat, or skim) over 1 packed cup fresh coconut shreds. Stir well, cover, and let steep for 30 minutes. To coax every sweet drop from the coconut, process the mixture (no more than 3 cups at a time) in a blender or food processor for 1 minute. Pour all the shreds and milk into a damp clean cloth and press the liquid into a bowl, squeezing until the shreds are dry. This first pressing is referred to as thick coconut milk, and the yield is about 1 cup. A second, even a third and fourth, infusion can be made from the same shreds, but the results will be increasingly thin. For economy's sake, milk from several batches can be combined, but for quality's sake, stop at three infusions. Cover, refrigerate, and use within 3 days.
Coconut cream is what rises to the top when coconut milk has been refrigerated and left to set. It can be skimmed off and refrigerated. Coconut butter is made from coconut cream by beating with a rotary beater or in a blender. When the solid mass rises, force any excess water out of it with the back of a spoon. Wrap and refrigerate. Coconut milk, cream, and butter are very sensitive to high heat. Add them to hot foods at the last minute or cook in a double boiler over hot water.You can substitute these products for their dairy equivalents. but be aware that coconut is much lower in protein and much higher in fat than cow's milk.
To use the spent shreds, mix 2 tablespoons sugar into every 1 cup coconut and stir in a heavy pan over low heat until they turn golden. Store in a tightly covered jar and sprinkle over cereals, fruits, and desserts.
Freshly grated and canned or packaged dried shredded or flaked coconut are interchangeable in recipes if you substitute 1 cup freshly grated for 1 1/3 cups dried canned or vice versa. If your grated fresh coconut seems dry, soak it in milk to cover for several hours in the refrigerator, then drain and pat dry before using. To remove the sugar from commercially sweetened coconut or to plump packaged (not canned) dried coconut, soak it in a combination of half milk and half water to cover for an hour or two in the refrigerator, then drain and pat dry. To toast grated, flaked, or shredded coconut, thinly spread it on a baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes in a 325°F oven, stirring often. Coconut meat freezes well.

Cranberries:
Cultivated cranberries come in shades of red from light to dark to nearly black-the assorted reds do not represent degrees of ripeness but varieties. Fresh cranberries appear sometime in October and stay through December. Cranberries are rich in pectin which is the one reason why the relish they make is so popular, for it unmolds flawlessly. The berries are remarkable keepers, both in the refrigerator and freezer. Preparation is simply a matter of rinsing and checking for bits of leaves and twigs. Try cranberries in any recipes calling for red currants.

Currants:
In northern Europe, tangy red currants are turned into colorful preserves and elegant sauces for meat. Black currants are cultivated for rich dark jams, syrups, and liqueurs like creme de cassis. Currants look like small, shiny, round buttons. They are scarce in this country, but from mid-June through August, pester the supermarket produce manager and growers at the farmers' market to find some for you.
Red and black currants are different species. The red are juicy, with a brilliant fruity sharpness. Black currants are larger than red (over ¾ inch in diameter). They are not quite as juicy and their flavor is muted. Yellow currants might be a variety of black or a native berry. Pink currants are a variant of red. There are opalescent white currants, which may have come from either the red or the black species. Light-colored fruits are less acidic and are translucent when cooked. Currants are very high in pectin, a soluble fiber.
The berries grow in clusters, and if yours are still on the stem, gently tease them off with a fork. The flavor is so tart that currants, like cranberries, are almost always cooked. They have small hard seeds that are marginally edible. It is best, but a labor of love, to seed them raw. Poke a thin skewer through the stem end and push the seeds out the other side, holding back the pulp with your other hand. Or cook the berries until softened, then pass through a food mill or sieve.

DATES
Perhaps because of their brown color and wrinkled skins, dates are typically regarded as dried fruit. However, many, that are packaged are fresh; it is the nature of some varieties to ripen with little moisture in their flesh, which is why dates are classed as soft, semisoft, and dry. Dates are harvested in late fall and early winter. You will have the best selection during winter and can be surest the dates are fresh. But with their remarkable keeping qualities, the fruits are available and delicious year-round. Nearly three-quarters of their weight may be in fruit sugar, which explains why the fruits are relatively high in calories. Deglet Noor is far and away the most plentiful date available. Khadrawy is a richly flavored date that ripens early. Barhi is the softest date, hintingof caramel. Plush Medjool can be enormous, a meal in two or three dates. Thoory, the driest date, is terrific for camping and trekking.
It is difficult to know whether the dates in the package you buy are fresh or dried. It does not matter, really, unless you get very old dates. Supermarket dates are most likely dried. If you can, buy in bulk where the stock has a brisk turnover. A market with a Middle Eastern clientele is a good bet. When you are selecting dates, even though the skin may be wrinkled, the fruit should be plump and have a sheen. Avoid dates that are hard or broken or that have a fermented odor. Although surface sugar crystals are harmless, avoid dates with those too. Pass up dates in prechopped or any "quick and easy" form. Unpitted dates are unrivaled in quality, both for eating and for cooking. They have not been handled by a machine and are as sound as the day they were picked. Dates will keep at cool room temperature in a tightly closed container for at least a month. They keep best in the refrigerator, but wrap them well because they absorb the odors of other foods.
To pit dates, make a slit in the top, open the sides, lift out the seed, then press the date closed again. For small pieces, chop or slice with a heavy knife, frequently rinsing the blade with water and wiping it dry. If you need to prepare a lot of dates, pit them, then freeze them on a baking sheet for an hour; they will be firmer and easier to slice. If you should have dates that are dry and hard, steam them briefly until softened. Finely chopped dates are delicious in place of sugar or honey to sweeten cereals, in peanut butter and cream cheese sandwiches, fruit dishes, pies, and similar desserts. Add them sparingly, tasting as you go. Sprinkle sliced dates in savory meat and vegetable stews for a sweet depth of flavor. Dates freeze good.

Durians
Durians are round, melon sized, and covered with sharp thorns and are ripe from April to July. As they approach maturity, their aroma becomes as repellent as rotting onions .When ripe, the shell is split open and the buttery flesh scooped out. The flesh bears little echo of the odor of the fruit; some find almonds and vanilla in the taste. The large seeds can be roasted and eaten as a snack Asian markets sell the flesh frozen or canned, often under the name of jack fruit.

Elderberries:
Tiny, purple-black elderberries are not often eaten on their own but are instead used in cooking to flavor other fruits. No other fruit will give an apple pie more zest. The berries grow in broad loose clusters following June's creamy white elderflowers. The round berries have a tart, spicy, winy taste. In August, elderberries might be found at a farmers' market but are more likely to be found growing in a tall shrub by a country road. Select sprays with the darkest berries. Once home, freeze the sprays on baking sheets, then shake them into a deep bowl (the berries will fall off and will also dispatch any small insects clinging to the sprays). Either pack in a freezer bag and return to the freezer or rinse the berries and cook them as you would blueberries. Elderberries have long been prized for making wine, jam, and jelly. To add to a 9-inch apple pie, mix a heaping 3 cups berries into the prepared apples, then blend in the sugar and spices. Elderberries must always be cooked, since the small amount of a poisonous alkaloid they may contain is destroyed in cooking. The cooked berries can also be frozen.

Feijoas
Pineapple guava is another name for this fruit, and it aptly reflects feijoas delicious and complex flavor. Commercially grown feijoas are an egg's size and shape and have a waxy dark green peel with a light bloom. The soft firm flesh is slightly gritty, like a pear's. It is greenish yellow with a jellylike center containing tiny edible seeds. Feijoas are in season from fall through early winter. Look for them in Hispanic groceries; select unblemished fruits as they will be underripe. Ripen at room temperature, uncovered, turning frequently. When they are as soft as a ripe pear and wonderfully fragrant, either eat them at once or refrigerate between paper towels. While you are at the market, buy some fresh cream cheese. Cut the ripe fruit in half, heap soft cheese in the center, and eat with a spoon out of the shell, taking a dab of cheese with each bite. If there will be any waiting, the cut flesh should be brushed with citrus juice to keep it from darkening. The skin is bitter, so peel it with a vegetable peeler. Cut the fruit into cubes or quarters and treat with an antibrowning solution. Feijoas are often confused with common guavas, which tells you that you can use one fruit for the other in a recipe but use only common or strawberry guavas when making guava jelly. Feijoas can be cooked but they are best fresh in delicate dishes. They maybe canned but do not freeze well.

FIGS
A ripe fresh fig is so intensely sweet and rich it should either be eaten out of hand or sliced in half and accompanied with no more than a small scoop of ice cream, or a twist of the peppermill. Figs from the June through July crop are generally the largest and most flavorful. The second crop in late summer is the most plentiful, but the quality is best for preserving and drying. Select tree ripened figs if you can, but usually this delicate fruit is shipped unripe. Ripen uncovered at room temperature. Once ripe (soft to the touch with just a bit of resistance) figs rapidly lose quality, although they can be held in the refrigerator for a bit, layered between paper towels. There is nothing to trim on a fig but the stem. Grilled or roasted until barely heated through, whole figs make a superb garnish.

Genips or Mamoncillos
These fruits are the size of grapes but are lime green on the outside and orange pink on the inside, with a round pit (or two seeds fitted together). The gummy pulp is sweet and refreshing, reminiscent of grapes. Eat out of hand.

Gooseberries:
Gooseberries are usually the size of large blueberries but rounder, although some are ovals, some are teardrops, and some are as big as quail eggs. The berries are the same translucent color all through, whether white, gold, purple-red, burgundy, rose, or the standard lime green. When underripe, gooseberries have a clean sharp taste like sour grapes. As they ripen, a touch of muscat creeps in, softening the sharpness. Gooseberries are in season from May through August but are most widely available in June. Choose the firmest and shiniest berries at the market. When picking, remember that the ripe berries are those that fall from the bush when touched. Gooseberries are good keepers when refrigerated. The ripest, sweetest berries are wonderful raw, but most gooseberries are cooked with sugar. The English cook elderflowers with gooseberries to bring out the muscat in the berries; a splash of muscat wine has the same effect. Gooseberries can be cooked well in advance because they are so acid, they never discolor. To prepare for cooking, "top and tail" the berries (use a thumbnail to nip off the remnants of stem at the top end and blossom at the tail end). For a cooked puree, this step can be omitted because the ends will be caught in the sieve. Like lemon, the acidity of gooseberries in a sauce makes an excellent foil for fatty fish and meat. Gooseberries make heavenly puddings, tarts, and pies. The berries freeze and can well and make superlative preserves.

GRAPES
The grapes we enjoy come from three species. The most common are European or wine grapes; these are the thin skinned grapes that grace our tables in fresh bunches, as raisins and dried currants, and in wine. The term table grape has come to be synonymous with the European species. Characteristically, the skin of European grapes clings to its pulp. Of the dozens of varieties grown for the table, a few seedless red and green varieties are the most popular, even though many varieties with seeds have more exciting flavors. Varieties of grapes used for wine have complex nuances of taste and are excellent for cooking, but, unfortunately, they are rarely sent fresh to market.
Grapes native to this country have comparatively thicker skin that slips easily from the pulp and they are often called slipskins. Fox grapes, native from New England to Georgia to Indiana, are the principal American species. Foxes may be sweet but are usually astringent, with a spicy musky aroma and a flavor that has come to be described as "foxy." Concords, the grapes of commercial jelly and purple juice are a superlative example of fox grapes. The second American species is the muscadines, native from Delaware to Florida to Kansas. Most are sweet, and some are even muskier and more richly aromatic than foxes. Scuppernongs are perhaps the best-known muscadine; they are so sweet their jelly can taste like honey. American grapes ripen in September and October; they are usually too fragile to ship. Most are sent to factories to be turned into juice, sweet preserves, or wine.
Most European varieties are grown in California and are shipped all over the country. They mature at different times and some keep for months. Fresh domestic table grapes begin arriving in the market in late May and can last until March, although most have finished by January. The gap in late winter is filled with imported grapes.
Grapes are supposed to be picked ripe, but occasionally they are not quite so, and being a berry, they will not ripen off the vine. All the grapes on a bunch should be plump, sound, and the same size. A dusting of bloom (the powdery finish) is a sure sign of freshness. Color also tells. Look for green grapes with a gold cast. Darker grapes should have a uniformly deep tone. Stems must be green and moist (except for one or two varieties, like Emperor, which will have woody stems). It is easier to inspect free whole bunches, but wrapped bunches are better protected from bruising. At home, remove any grapes that are imperfect, and refrigerate the bunch in a perforated plastic bag for up to 3 days.
For the finest bouquet in table grapes, remove them from the refrigerator about an hour before serving. Rinse in a refreshing bath of cool water into which you have stirred a splash of lemon juice or wine vinegar. To serve as dessert, unless there are grape shears on the table, snip into portion-size clusters. Grapes plucked one by one soon make a noble bunch threadbare. Frozen grapes make a delicious snack, and, of course, grapes are superb pressed into juice and dried into raisins and currants.

Grapefruit and Pomelos:
There are two types of grapefruit, white fleshed (pink) and pigmented (red). Fresh grapefruit of both types can be found in the market year-round because the fruits ripen at different times in Texas, Florida, California, and Arizona. Select heavy, firm, round, or slightly flattened fruits with smooth skins. Russeted fruits (those with a brownish texture on the rind) often have the best flavor. Avoid fruits with rough, puffy rinds. Marsh is the most popular white-fleshed grapefruit. It has fine flavor and few or no seeds. Star Ruby, Rio Red, and Flame are pigmented fruits of excellent quality with few to no seeds.
Grapefruit whets the appetite, and makes an ideal first course. Segments are delicious in fruit salads, as garnish for poultry, and as decorations for desserts. Grapefruit is marvelous in a tossed green salad. It is especially flavorful sweetened with honey. The tangy fruit goes especially well with avocado, shellfish, and other citrus, and grapefruit makes canned tuna and salmon seem fresher. Grapefruit cans and freezes well. Pomelo, ancestor of today's grapefruit, is the largest citrus fruit (grapefruit sized and bigger). It can be round or pear shaped, with firm white or pink flesh. Pomelo is a favorite fruit in Asia and is seen more and more in this country. The flesh is not as juicy as that of grapefruit, but Chandler, the most common pomelo, has delicious sweet pink flesh, usually with few seeds. Seediness in many citrus varieties depends on whether there is a similar tree (a pollinator) close by. No pollinator, few or no seeds. Pomelos are traditionally served in skinless segments. To prepare, slice off each end of the fruit, down to the flesh. Score the rind in four or five places without cutting into the flesh. Pull off the rind, then cut away as much white membrane as desired. Pull the fruit apart in halves, then slice each half in half. Stand a quarter upright and slice off the thin edge of the wedge, the fibrous white membrane to free each segment, then serve any way you would serve grapefruit segments.

GUAVAS
There are a number of guavas in the world, but the common guava, the one most available here resembles a pale smooth-skinned lemon. Its juicy flesh is a luscious shade of pink and has an intensely sweet flowery-fruity flavor. If you live in Florida or southern California, you may also find strawberry and lemon guavas at a farmers' market. They are smaller than the common variety but have the same rich flavor. If the guavas you find are still firm, they will continue to ripen at home. Choose blemish-free fruits, as yellow and soft as you can find, and ripen them at room tem-perature, out of the sun, or in a closed paper bag. Ripening time is unpredictable, so check daily and turn the fruits often. When they are ripe, refrigerate in a perforated plastic bag.
Guavas are simple to serve. Just trim off the blossom end, slice in half either way, and eat with a spoon (the seeds of most guavas are edible). For fruit cups and salads, peel with a vegetable peeler and cut in slices. The four chambers filled with seeds and pulp make a lovely pattern in the slices. If you prefer, remove the seeds and pulp before slicing or cutting the flesh into chunks. Slightly underripe guavas are very good lightly cooked. Poach peeled cubes and add to a compote or puree them and use as a sauce for cold meats or other fruits.

Huckleberries:
Huckleberries resemble blueberries in appearance and flavor but are much seedier and there-fore not grown commercially. Several fruits are called huckleberries. One of the most commonly gathered is the Black huckleberry, an eastern native. It is glossy black and has ten seedlike nuts. It is not a berry but a drupe, a fruit with a pit, like a peach. Another is the Evergreen huckleberry, which grows along the Pacific Coast. It is a true berry, black and tart. Huckleberries ripen in late summer. Pick the darkest, ripest, soundest berries and refrigerate them until using. Keep for up to 2 days in the refrigerator. Substitute huckleberries for blueberries in recipes in which the seeds are strained out-syrups, dessert sauces, and jams. The berries maybe frozen and canned.

JUJUBES
Jujubes are also called Chinese dates. The size of dates and round to teardrop shaped, ripe jujubes have sweet, meaty brown flesh, reminiscent of dates. Like dates, jujubes contain a single pit. The fruits ripen in clusters on the tree in autumn. Some jujube varieties can be eaten green because they are as crisp as apples. For those that are best when brown, select them at the orange-red stage, when the first brown spot appears. Ripen uncovered at room temperature, turning occasionally. Refrigerate them in a perforated plastic bag when ripe.
The whole poached fruits add richness to a compote. Before poaching, puncture each jujube in several places with a skewer so the flesh can absorb the syrup through the tough skin. Jujubes make delicious candy, jelly, and fruit cheese. Dried jujubes are served like dates. The fruits also freeze well.

Kiwanos or African Horned Cucumbers or Melons
Like a small, spiky orange fruit from the sea, these relatives of melons and cucumbers have orange green cucumber like flesh with a mild cucumber flavor. Kiwanos are in season in late summer. Cut off the rind and slice the flesh into chunks for salads.

KIWI FRUIT
This is a dream fruit-with green flesh that is velvety, pineapple sweet, and elegantly beautiful. Kiwis are available year-round because they keep well in cold storage. Select unbruised firm fruits without shriveling or soft spots. A ripe kiwi is as soft as a ripe peach, but usually the fuzzy brown ovals at the market need ripening. Use the paper bag method. Set wrapped ripe kiwis in the refrigerator away from other fruits, whose ethylene gas can overripen the kiwis. Kiwis can be peeled and sliced hours in advance; they never darken. Use a vegetable peeler, then slice crosswise, revealing a sunburst of tiny seeds between a pale cen-ter and halo of lime green. Do not cook kiwis, for they turn a woeful shade of green. Instead, imagine fresh kiwis are melons and use slices all the same ways. Hardy kiwis are ovals with smooth, opaque green skins (although there is a red variety), the size of large grapes. They taste like sweet kiwis and ripen in autumn. They are best for eating out of hand.

Kumquats:
These birds-egg-sized fruits are unique among citrus and are actually in a different genus from the rest. Kumquats size also makes them unique. The kumquat for eating fresh, rind and all, is Meiwa. It is round with sweet, spicy flesh and rind. Nagami, the other kumquat that comes to market, is oblong. Nagami's rind is sweet, but its flesh is sour, which is a pleasing combination for preserves and marmalades. Both types vary in color from gold to orange. Kumquats are available in early winter, and the freshest supply will be at an Asian market. Select fruits that are thoroughly plump, not shriveled at an end. For eating, just rinse well. Eating the small seeds should not be a problem. To eat Nagamis out of hand, pinch the fruit, rolling it slightly between your fingers, to release some of the rind's sweetness into the tart flesh. Add whole kumquats to simmering stews just long enough to soften the rind. In fruit cups and compotes, if the fruits are small enough, leave them whole; otherwise, slice lengthwise in half. Whole bright kumquats also make a charming garnish.

Lemons
Fresh lemons are in the market all year. Supermarket lemons are either bright yellow Eurekas or Lisbons. Meyer lemons are a cross between lemon and mandarin. Their rind is bright yellow and very thin. Their juicy flesh is warm gold with a tangy sweet flavor hinting of citrus blossoms. It can be mimicked with half lemon and half orange juice, although the flowery element will be missing. Meyer lemons ripen all year, but your best chance of finding them is in specialty markets winter through spring. Use them as lemons, but also look for ways to use them as a fruit to eat. Chilled halves of Meyer lemons can be sliced paper thin and added to fruit cups, compotes, and salads. Bite-sized chunks of the lemon add a delicious dimension to long-cooking meat stews, particularly rich ones. The enormous Ponderosa lemon is a hybrid between lemon and citron. It is difficult to peel, but its juice is highly acidic and can be used as standard lemon juice. The best of all these lemons will have smooth, thin rind and be heavy for their size. Avoid lemons brushed with green, for they will be tarter but less flavorful.

Limes:
There are two if not three types of true limes. One group, called the Bartender's lime, is made up of Mexican limes, Key limes, and West Indian limes. They are small and oval. Commercially, they are picked green when they are at their most sour. When they turn yellow-orange, they are mature. Their pulp is pale with a splendidly tart, aromatic flavor. Seedless Bearss limes are larger, the size of a small lemon. For the most flavor select Bearss when ripe (green), they are greenish yellow inside and out. Their flavor is bright but less intense than that of the Mexican lime group. Some feel Bearss is a separate type, and some regard it as a variety of Persian or Tahitian lime because it is almost identical. Some form of true lime is available year-round. Select firm, glossy, heavy fruits (the heavier, the juicier). Refrigerate immediately in perforated plastic bags in the crisper. Preparation is the same as for lemons. In summer, when limes are less expensive than lemons we find new ways to use them in place of lemons in recipes. True limes have a light, clean freshness in their tang. Their juice can often rescue a dull dish better than lemon or orange juice because their flavor is more distinctive. By the same token, lime juice does not blend with other flavors as well, so it must be used with restraint. Lime peel can be tough, so taste a piece or two before using it. A brief blanching may be needed to tenderize it.

LITCHIS
A little like jellied incense, these fruits are protected by a fragile, round, brown shell. Out of their shells, the fruits are white and grapelike, but there is a large, smooth seed inside. Fresh litchis are found in Asian markets in summer. Select fruits with their stems attached in untracked shells, the redder the shell and the heavier the fruit, the fresher. The unpeeled fruit keeps for up to 1 week in the refrigerator. To serve, peel the fruit and serve whole with a wedge of lemon or lime, perhaps three to five a person. Or use litchis in a tropical fruit cup. When dried, the fruit shrinks, turns dark brown, and has something of a raisin taste. Dried litchis, available in Asian markets, make a delicious after dinner sweet. Canned, the fruit has dull flavor by comparison.

Loganberries:
Loganberries may be a cross of red raspberry and blackberry. Most people who have tasted them think these large, juicy, slightly tart, burgundy-red berries are the finest flavored of all berries and the best for cooking.

Loquats
A loquat looks like a pear shaped apricot with smooth skin. Inside, nearly half the fruit is given to large brown seeds. The flesh of a loquat is light to medium orange, moist, and tender yet firm. Depending on the variety, the flavor may be reminiscent of cherries, apricots, plums, grapes, or litchis, but it is always a blend of sweet and sharp. In Florida, they come in season in March and last through May; in California, they are available through June. However, sad to say, the fruits bruise so easily that they are rarely available far from where they grow. If you come across these special fruits, choose as many without stems as possible and pick the largest, heaviest, most fragrant fruits. Keep loquats at room temperature until they start to deteriorate, then refrigerate briefly in a perforated plastic bag. To serve, if there is a stem attached, snap or slice it off. To savor their complex flavor, enjoy loquats out of hand, dropping the seeds and perhaps the blossom end onto a small plate. Most loquats do not need peeling, but when they do, the skin pulls off easily. To add to fruit cups and salads, slice the fruits in half lengthwise, remove the seeds, and nip out blossom ends. If the pieces are large, cut them in half again. Loquats have a lovely flavor when poached in a light syrup for poaching fruit, but be careful not to overcook. The fruits also make marvelous jam and jelly, and they freeze well in syrup.

Mandarins (Tangerines):
Loose skinned and easily peeled, mandarins look like small oranges, but their flesh is tarter and usually seedier. They are fun to eat out of hand because the segments come apart effortlessly. Select fruits heavy for their size, free of bruises and soft spots. Color is not always to be trusted, and russeted skins can cover especially good fruit. Satsumas, among the choicest of mandarins, sometimes can be eaten when the rind is green. When ripe, their rind is bright orange. Satsumas are sweet with tangy overtones and seedless. They are first to come to the market in November and are available through January. Owaris are the most widely available satsumas. Common mandarins include clementines, a group of very small to medium fruits, very juicy, sweet, and aromatic, variously seedy and seedless. Clementines are called Algerian mandarins in California and are in season the earliest, from late November into December through April, if you include those from North Africa and Spain. Fairchild is a juicy mandarin/tangelo cross with superb flavor, ripening in November and December. Mandarins are often called tangerines, but the term has no botanical significance.
To peel mandarins, just push a thumb into the cen-ter on the top and pull back the rind. If you wish to peel their segments, separate them, then pull off the membrane individually. Use a knife tip to flick out seeds. Mandarin segments add a brilliant touch to fruit cups, salads of all sorts, and fruit desserts. Use mandarins as you would orange segments or slices.

MANGOES
Mangoes come in ovals, kidney shapes, and rounds, usually the size of a large avocado. Their flavor is peach touched with lime or perhaps pineapple; their texture is much like that of a peach but sometimes fibrous. Mangoes may be available in January but are sweeter later in the season. June is the peak season and they may continue through August. Select plump fruits without blemishes, soft spots, or shriveled skin. Skin color differs according to variety; the Keitt mango can be solid green when ripe. However, avoid any green fruit with a grayish tinge, for it may not ripen properly. Mangoes are usually shipped underripe, as they ripen well after picking. Ripen them uncovered at cool room temperature out of the sun, turning occasionally; at warmer temperatures, they may ripen too quickly and the flavor may be altered. You also can ripen mangoes in a paper bag. Mangoes are ripe when they are richly fragrant and yield when you gently press them between your hands. Black speckles on the skin are to be expected. Refrigerate ripe mangoes in a perforated plastic bag in the crisper for up to 2 days.
To cut up mangoes: you first must cut the flesh from the long, broad, thin-edged pit. Score the skin length-wise in quarters and pull off the peel. For an oval mango, hold it on one thin edge on a grooved cutting board (to catch the juice). With a sharp serrated knife, slice down either side of the pit, which is about ¾ inch thick, removing two thick pieces. Cut the remaining flesh from the pit. Cut the flesh as desired. For a round mango, peel the same way. Then, working on one side at a time,cut the fruit down to the pit in slices or cubes, slide the knife down underneath and cut the pieces free of the pit. Repeat on the other side.
Serve raw mangoes slightly chilled all the ways you would peaches and papayas. They are delicious cooked in chutney, sautéed with chicken and fish, or garnishing grilled meat and poultry. A touch of orange with mangoas with peaches is lovely. Mangoes are very good canned and frozen.

Marion berries:
Marion berries are medium to large, shiny black, and sweet, with the hint of a wild blackberry flavor.

Melogolds:
Melogolds are a cross between a pummelo and a grapefruit that resulted from research conducted by two scientists from UC Riverside in the late 1950's. Size varies, but they can be over 6 inches in diameter. Melogolds are juicy with the taste of orange and grapefruit overtones. They have a smooth rind that is easy to peel and contain few to no seeds.
Eat fresh as a snack or add to fruit salads. Can be eaten with a spoon like a grapefruit or separated into segments.
Choose fruit that is aromatic with a firm rind that is not puffy and soft. It should also have a bright yellow rind with little to no green coloring. Keep refrigerated for up to 20 days, or store at room temperature for 10-14 days.

MELONS
There are four types of dessert melons (the melons that are not watermelons). Unless otherwise noted, summer is their peak season. If a melon has no fruity perfume at the smooth (the blossom) end, do not buy it (unless it is a casaba, discussed below). There also should be a slight softness at the blossom end. Choose melons that are heaviest for their size, with no soft spots, mold, or cracks and no strong aroma indicating overripeness. If, when you gently shake a melon, seeds rattle, chances are the melon is too ripe. To know whether a melon will continue to ripen and what it ought to taste like, become familiar with the melon types, since characteristics differ.
The only melons that ripen slightly after picking are the smooth, or winter, group. "Smooth" describes the rind relative to other melons. Honeydew and Santa Claus or Christmas melons have genuinely smooth rinds, but Canary and Crenshaw melons are slightly wrinkled, and casabas have distinct wrinkles." Winter" indicates the melons take longer to ripen than others. They are ready in the fall. The flavor of these melons is mild and their flesh pale-light orange in Crenshaw and green to white in the rest, although salmon pink honeydews have been bred. Smooth melons are fragrant when ripe, except for casaba. Casabas are ripe when golden yellow except at the stem end, which may be slightly greenish.
America's cantaloupe, muskmelon, nutmeg, and Persian melons are in the netted group. Choose those in which the netting is pronounced and the fragrance is as sweet as you expect the flavor to be. The melon's flesh should be musky and orange. In Europe, and botanically speaking, true cantaloupes have another shape. They have a smooth, hard rind and may be lightly fluted. Their orange, green, or pink flesh is intensely sweet and perfumed. The great French Charentais melon is the most prominent in this group. A small crack close to the stem indicates full ripeness.
Stunning fruits blended from all of the above are termed tropical melons. There are Galia, Ha-Ogen, Passport, French Breakfast, as well as other exotically flavored fruits available mostly from the home garden.
Happily, there is just one type of watermelon, and it is glorious. These days there is no superior size, shape, or color of watermelon, and many have that old-fashioned honey sweet taste. The flesh may be red, pink, orange, or gold; it may have seeds or be seedless; it may be the size of a small cantaloupe or a large ham.
To round out the ripening of smooth or winter melons, place them uncut in a paper bag. Cut melons will not ripen. Ripe melons of other types will soften and may be a bit juicier if left at room temperature for a day or two. Refrigerate ripe or cut melons in tightly closed plastic bags (their aroma will affect everything around them in the refrigerator) and serve within 2 days.
Melons are usually eaten raw. To prepare, slice the melon in half through the stem end and scoop out the seeds and loose pulp or strings. At this point, half a small melon makes a first course or dessert decorated with a sprig of mint. For the main course, fill it with cottage cheese, berries, a fruit cup, or a salad of fruits, vegetables, or poultry. Or serve it for dessert with a scoop of ice cream. Or use a melon baller to scoop out balls, then add the remnants to a smoothie. To cut the melon into pieces, slice the half into 2-inch-thick wedges and cut off the rind at the point where it changes to the color of the flesh. When served peeled, no melon is wasted, although you can certainly serve unpeeled wedges to be eaten with a spoon. If desired, continue slicing peeled pieces into thin crescents or bite sized chunks. Melon rings are appealing: Cut off the rind of a whole melon, then cut the melon crosswise into ¾ inch thick slices. Scrape out the seeds. A chilled melon is indeed refreshing, but perfume is lost to the cold. A ripe dessert melon needs no seasoning, but a shake of ginger or white pepper or a spritz of lemon or orange juice may add a pleasing note. Dessert melons freeze well.
For effortless eating you should buy a cut melon. There should be a sweet watermelon fragrance emanating through the plastic wrap, the flesh should appear dense and firm, seeds should be dark (although a seedless variety may have small white seeds), and there should be no thin white streaks. If you need a whole melon, select one that is symmetrical with a waxy bloom on the rind, and check underneath to make sure it is yellowish (a sign it has ripened on the ground). Refrigerate the melon at once but take it out an hour before serving. To prepare watermelon, cut it length wise in half, then cut it crosswise in slices and remove the rind. You can also cut it with a melon baller if you wish. Watermelons freeze well.

Mulberries:
Like coconuts, mulberries fall ripe off the tree. They are purple, very soft, and very juicy. They also stain everything they touch, including fingers. Mulberries look like a type of blackberry and are sweet-tart. Because they have been on the ground, they must be carefully rinsed. To preserve their shape, place them in a colander and dip them in and out of cool water. The berries are best with cream but can be used in any way that blackberries or black currants are. In England, mulberries are pureed and served as a sauce for roast lamb. They make beautiful ice cream. Mulberries may be frozen and canned.

NECTARINES
Nectarines are peaches in plum clothing. They do not have legendary varieties, and, even at their best, they are not as juicy as peaches, but their flavors can be sublime. If you substitute nectarines in a recipe for peaches, add a small amount of orange or pineapple juice to fill in for the missing juice.

Olallie Berry:
The Olallie Berry was created by George F. Waldo, who developed the Berry in Oregon. It is a cross between a Blackberry, Loganberry and Youngberry. Although originated in Oregon, it is widely cultivated in North America. The Olallie is slightly longer, more slender and has a tangier flavor than the Boysenberry. At maturity, it is glossy black. It has the advantage of a shorter winter chilling requirement than the Boysen, making it more adaptable to much of the western coastal area. It is also completely resistant to verticillium wilt, a soil-borne fungus disease that infects the canes. Therefore no fumigation of the soil is necessary.

Oranges:
Because the thickness of the orange rind depends on both the variety and the climate in which it was grown, thin skin, while desirable, may not be an option. Between a large, light fruit and a small, heavy one, choose the small one. As for color, oranges grown in Florida are not as brightly colored as those from California, but quality is equal. Florida oranges may also be russeted (have brownish patches all over). As with apples, this can be a sign of especially juicy, tasty fruit.
Fresh sweet oranges are available year-round at the market, but varieties come and go. Each variety has its unique characteristics. Valencias, the monarch of juice oranges, begin in early February and last into October. They are sweet with few or no seeds and are equally marvelous eaten out of hand over the sink. When Valencias are finished, navel oranges come in. They are the favorite eating orange because they are richly flavored, easy to peel, and seedless. Look for Cara Cara Pink navels, with stunning reddish pink flesh, as well as the trusty standard Washington navel. They begin in November and last into May. Sweet Jaffas, similar to Valencias, may appear from Israel in winter, and seedy but aromatic Pineapple oranges may appear in January and February. Blood oranges have raspberry-colored flesh and juice. Indeed, they taste as if the fruit were steeped in berry juice. Whether Moro, Sanguinelli, or Tarocco, blood oranges are available toward the end of the navel season, March through May.
Sour oranges are not grown on a wide scale commercially, but in late winter and early spring they can be found in Hispanic markets and farmers' markets in citrus growing country. These are marmalade oranges, Seville, Bouquet de Fleurs, and Chinotto. Often the fruits are called bitter oranges, and this is more to the point. While acidic, they have a bitter aftertaste that is the hallmark of orange marmalade. Their juice is delightful when used for lemon juice in recipes, being sour and bitter and orange all at once.
A straightforward way to eat an orange is to slice it in half, then in half the other way, then cut each quarter in half. This makes nice chunks that you can sink your teeth into, pulling out every speck of sweetness and juice. When peeling a whole orange to eat out of hand, if there is a knife around, score the fruit lengthwise in quarters, then pull off the rind. Otherwise, just pull off the rind in pieces. For a company dish, use a small serrated knife and remove the peel in a spiral, being careful not to cut into the flesh more than necessary. Orange slices make a fast alternative to peeled segments. After removing the peel, simply slice the orange crosswise. For a garnish, leave the slices whole. For adding to a mixture, cut the slices in half, check for seeds. Oranges are at their best raw. They hold their own with robust flavors like spinach,chicories,omons, garlic, tomatoes, and beef. In Provence, orange is one of the best loved flavorings for savory foods. Use orange juice in place of lemon juice occasionally to discover new nuances of flavor in a composition. Orange juice is almost as marvelous a flavor enhancer as lemon, and a little should always be added to red and yellow fruits.

Oroblanco:
The Oroblanco is a variety of grapefruit which was developed by the University of California citrus breeding program. It is the result of a cross between white grapefruit and less acidic pummelo. The result is a fruit that is wonderfully sweet. The flesh is juicy and very mild flavored without the bitterness that is normally characteristic of grapefruit. It does have a rather thick rind which it inherits from its pummelo parent. But the flesh is nice and sweet. It has been called a grapefruit for people who don't like grapefruit.
The fruit can be readily identified by the bright green exterior and the sweeter taste. As the season progresses the green peel fades to a golden yellow. The interior is white or golden in color. Whether bright green or more golden yellow on the outside, these varieties are ripe, sweet and ready to eat.
Oroblancos can be used as you use regular grapefruit. They are delicious when served as a breakfast fruit, and will require less sweetening to enjoy.
The white albedo beneath the skin does tend to be a little thicker and the membranes firmer than traditional grapefruit. Therefore segmenting the fruit, as you do a navel orange, is less preferable than peeling and sectioning the fruit, removing the meat between the membranes.

PAPAWS OR PAWPAWS
These fruits, native to the eastern United Slates, are sometimes called Michigan or Nebraska bananas. They look like stubby bananas, and their soft, pale flesh is creamy and sweet. Papaws ripen after the first heavy frost, turning from green gold to almost black. The ripe fruit is soft and does not keep, but papaws may be picked when underripe and refrigerated for longer keeping. Their flavor is like banana custard or vanilla custard with a touch of pear, mango, or pineap-ple. The ripe fruit smells uncommonly sweet and can be cloying; perhaps it is not wise to ripen the fruit indoors. Related to cherimoyas and sweetsops, papaws are best eaten raw with a spoon, discarding the large black seeds. Heat alters the delicate flavor, although they can be baked like bananas in cakes and puddings. Papaws dry well.

PAPAYAS
For drama at the table, slice a whole yellow-green papaya in half to reveal apricot-colored flesh and jet black seeds. Scoop all but a few of the seeds into a bowl and set a lime half in their place. A ripe papaya is delicately sweet and needs tang for balance. Most of the 1 pound fruits, shaped like short-necked pears, come from Hawaii. Those with salmon pink flesh are the Solo Sunrise variety and are less juicy than golden Solo Waimanalo. If you see orange-fleshed papaya sold by the piece, it is from Mexico. This variety can weigh up to 10 pounds and is less sweet. In some parts of the country, papayas are available year-round, but in most parts they are generally available only in early summer.
Fully ripe Solo papayas are almost completely yellow and soft as a ripe peach. Select them when they are at least half yellow and yield slightly when pressed between your hands. Uncut papayas have no aroma, but the skin should be smooth. Ignore superficial blemishes. Mexican papayas should have a lightly sweet scent. Ripen a half yellow papaya by the paper bag method. Refrigerate for up to 1 day when ripe. Peel ripe Solo papayas, cut lengthwise in half, and remove and rinse the seeds. They are spicy and can be used as you would capers, or you can dry them and coarsely grind them like peppercorns. Prepare papaya and serve as melon, with one exception. As with raw pineapple, the enzymes in papaya prevent gelatin from jelling. Papayas are most refreshing raw; but slightly underripe fruit (Mexican papayas especially) are good glazed and baked like winter squash, sautéed in inch-thick slices, grilled in quarters or cubes, or cooked in curries and soups. Papayas can and freeze well.

Passion Fruits or Purple Granadillas
A ripe passion fruit looks like a small, crumpled, purply brown ball. Slice into the thin brittle rind and you will find a mass of small dark seeds, each enclosed in translucent yellowish pulp. The interior of the shell is white, veined and rimmed pomegranate red. The fruit is the seeds, in the same way that pomegranate fruit is seeds (granadilla, its Spanish name, means "little pomegranate"). The edible seeds are crunchy, and there are dark pink pulpy connectors beneath the seeds. Scraped together with a spoon, they have a citrus consistency. A passion fruit's flavor is tart, honeyed, and complex, often a mingling of strawberry, pineapple, and lemon. Grown in Hawaii, Florida, California, and New Zealand, the fruit is theoretically available all year. Choose the largest, heaviest fruits. If the shell is smooth, ripen the fruit at room temperature until the rind is deeply wrinkled but firm. Refrigerate in a perforated plastic bag or freeze whole. Without altering flavor, freezing softens the pulp and makes it easier to puree.
Open the fruit by slicing off the top. If it is your first passion fruit, enjoy the fruit on its own spooned out of the shell, perhaps with drops of honey or an orange liqueur. To make a puree that will be passion fruit essence, scoop the pulp into a bowl, then press through a nylon sieve. For juice, turn the seeds into a damp cloth and squeeze the juice into a container. Each fruit probably will give less than 1 tablespoon juice, but it will be thick and strong and can be carefully diluted. Use it to flavor other drinks, fruit soups, fruit desserts, creams, or custards. The spent seeds are so well flavored, you can stir them into fruit juice to give it a passion fruit flavor. A spoonful of the puree in a fruit ice or creamy frozen dessert makes it otherworldly. It is worth noting that this fruit is not named for its wildly sensual flavor. Instead the name comes from the passion flower that created it, which South American Jesuits found to be emblematic of the Passion of Christ.
Maypops are fruits of hardy passion flower vines and are mostly found in the wild. They are sometimes called apricot vines, as the 2 inch oval fruits are yellowish and the ripe yellowish pulp, seedy, similar to passion fruits, has a sweet-tart apricot taste.

PEACHES
America's legendary peaches have sugary flesh that melts in the mouth, much of it creamy white and clingstone. (Freestone, semi-freestone, and clingstone are terms used to describe how easily the pit is removed. There is no correlation between qualities of the peach and how the flesh comes off the pit.) If you live in the Southwest, the small, red-fleshed clingstone peaches grown in arid lands are perhaps the sweetest peaches of all.
Peaches are in season at different times across the country but everywhere in July and August. When shopping for peaches, bring no preconceptions. Of course, avoid those with spots, bruises, and shriveled skins, but huge fruits that ought to be woody can have silky flesh. And unless it is green, the skin's color reflects variety, not ripeness. There is one cardinal rule in selecting peaches: "tree-ripened" is a necessity. Although underripe fruits soften and grow juicier at room temperature, they do not increase in sugar. A fully ripe peach is sweetly perfumed and gives slightly when gently pressed between your palms. If you must ripen peaches, use the paper bag method. Refrigerate ripe fruits.
If you wish to leave the skin on a peach but rid it of its fuzz, rub off the fuzz under cold running water. To peel a peach, use the blanching method. Because peach flesh darkens when exposed to air, peel a peach at the last minute or treat it with an antibrowning solution. To remove the pit, cut around the peach on the seamline, twist the halves in opposite directions, and gently pull them apart. If the pit does not come out easily with the tip of a knife, slice or quarter the peach down to the stone, then lift or slice the pieces away.
Fresh peaches are good, but a little cooking deepens their flavor and is the only way to serve less than ripe fruit. Experiment with poaching, baking, sauteeing, and grilling peaches. When there is an overflow, they do very well frozen, canned, dried, and pureed into nectar.

PEARS
European pears (fragile when ripe but sturdy while green) are the ideal growers' fruit, since the pears must ripen off the tree. On the tree, the fruit turns mealy. Pears are available year round, but their natural peak season is August through October. Sometimes you will find ripe pears at the market. A pear is ripe when it smells like a pear and gives to gentle pressure applied at the stem end. Because some pears will rot before they ripen, it is wise to select the ripest pears available. Examine pears carefully for bruises. Superficial scrapes and blemishes are not important, but avoid pears with dark or soft spots or any shriveling. For the most part (Anjou is an exception), yellow pears deepen from green to yellow as they ripen, but red pears are red before they are ripe. Bartlett, Cornice, Concorde, and Seckel will ripen to melting softness, but serve Anjou, Bosc, and Red Clapp's Favorite, and cook Winter Nellis, while slightly crisp.
You can ripen pears at room temperature, then refrigerate them for a day or two before serving. Or you can refrigerate the fruits until a week before you want to serve them, then ripen at room temperature in a paper bag. When refrigerating pears, perforated plastic bags are crucial, because when sealed airtight, the fruit darkens at the center. Turn and check the pears frequently wherever they are to watch for deterioration.
There are many fewer varieties of pears available than apples, but the pears we have differ in character, which keeps pear season interesting.
Anjou: Oval with melting white flesh, Anjou is blander than most. It is the most abundant winter pear, good for eating and cooking and keeps for up to 7 months.
Asian: pears appear to be a cross between apple and European pear, but as round, juicy, and crisp as they are, they are still true pears. They are in season July through October, peaking in September. Only one or two varieties are usually seen, but Asian markets offer a more interesting selection. These pears are generally shipped ripe. There are essentially two colors. Most of the greenish type ripen to yellow green; russet pears deepen to rich golden brown. The fruits are good keepers. The Asian pear is milder in flavor than either an apple or a pear. They are best eaten raw and unpeeled. They are especially handsome served in whole crosswise slices (the seeds form a star). These neither can nor freeze well.
Bartlett: The sweet, juicy flesh of this golden bell-shaped pear is equally delicious eaten out of hand, cooked, canned, and dried; it keeps for up to 8 weeks.
Bosc: Tapered, aromatic, juicy, and rich-is lovely for eating, cooking, and drying, and keeps for up to 7 months.
Comice: Rounded in shape, sweet, rich Cornice is the queen of dessert pears and keeps for up to 7 months.
Concorde: This yellow-skinned, Bosc-shaped, European winter eating pear has Cornice parentage; it keeps for up to 4 months.
Packham's Triumph: is a Bartlett type and keeps for 3 to 4 months.
Red Clapp's Favorite: Large and elongated, this is a crimson dessert pear with sweet full flavor, but it only keeps for up to 2 weeks.
Seckel: Russeted, round Seckel is just 2 inches long but is juicy, spicy, tender, and aromatic, excellent for eating and incomparable for pickling and canning but it only keeps for up to 8 weeks.
Winter Nellis: Sometimes called Nellies, this pear is fat and russeted, not gorgeous, but perhaps the best pear for cooking, although some enjoy it on its own. It keeps up for to 4 months.
To serve pears raw, leave the skins on. Eat out of hand or core as for apples. After cutting the pear in half, you can scoop out the core with a teaspoon and serve the halves if you treat the cut sides for browning. Raw pears and raw apples are virtually interchangeable in recipes, the main difference being the obvious one of texture, pears are soft, and apples are crisp. Pears have a particular affinity for cheese, nuts, and chocolate. Pears are delicious poached, sautéed, grilled, and baked. Slightly underripe pears are best for cooking, since they will hold their shape. When baking or poaching them whole, choose pears of uniform size with stems attached, then shave a thin slice from the bottom so they all stand upright. Warm pears bring out the zing in sweet spices like ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, mace, and doves. Whether raw or cooked, pears have the best flavor when cool (neither hot nor cold). European pears are superb for canning and drying, but they do not freeze well.

PERSIMMONS
Brilliant orange persimmons herald autumn and see us through the winter holidays. A favorite fruit in Japan (called kaki, also their name in much of Europe), persimmons ought to be appreciated in this country at least for their jelly smoothness and apricot rich taste. Hachiya persimmons are large and acorn shaped. Until they mature to silky soft ripeness, they are as astringent as a harsh tannic wine. By contrast, Fuyu persimmons, resembling orange tomatoes, are not at all astringent, even while firm and crisp. Fuyus are tannin free. If you can remember that acorns are bitter or tomatoes are sweet, you will never bite into the wrong persimmon. Any other variety of persimmon you see will have the shape of Hachiya or Fuyu, so proceed accordingly. Small reddish American persimmons are gathered in the wild and from a few varieties grown by passionate fans. But the fruit is inconsistent as to whether it ripens fully enough not to be unnervingly astringent. When the fruits are fully ripe, they can be honeylike and delicious.
Persimmons turn orange before they ripen, but richness of color is an indication of quality. Select the deepest colored persimmons, heavy for their weight, with no cracks, and with all four sepals (heart-shaped leaves) green and attached. Ripen persimmons uncovered at room temperature or in a paper bag with an apple, turning frequently. This can take weeks. To preserve ripe fruits that you cannot get to, freeze them whole.
All persimmons need for serving is rinsing, cutting out the sepals and cap, then slicing in half from top to bottom. Taste a bit of the peel: If it is bitter, scoop the pulp out of it with a spoon; otherwise, leave it. Serve Hachiyas in halves with a spoon. Fuyus can be sliced for adding to salad or fruit cups. We do not recommend cooking persimmons to be served on their own, for heat seems to turn their flesh bitter. However, ripe persimmons are wonderful in a batter for bread, pudding, or cake. Include the very finely chopped skin.

PINEAPPLES
These exotic American natives are available year round, which seems miraculous in the chill of winter. Prices tend to be lowest in the spring through June which is ideal timing for wedding breakfasts and graduation feasts. They also contain bromelain, an enzyme that breaks down protein, which means that fresh pineapple, like papaya, tenderizes meats. Make it the principal ingredient in a marinade. This brings up cautions: Add fresh pineapple to meat or poultry as a garnish or mix it into a meat or poultry salad not more than 10 minutes before serving, or the enzyme will make their flesh mushy. Since bromelain "digests" the protein in milk, fresh pineapple should not be added to cottage cheese or yogurt until just before serving. The protein in gelatin is also vulnerable. However, by bringing the fruit to a boil, you can deactivate the enzyme.
It is essential to bring home a pineapple that is perfectly ripe, since the fruit will soften but not grow sweeter after picking. Unfortunately, none of the traditional tests is trustworthy, except one. If the pineapple smells pineapple sweet, it is ripe. If the fruit is cold, though, the fragrance will be muted. The next best indication of ripeness and quality is a sticker that says the fruit was flown in from Hawaii. Fruits harvested elsewhere may have been picked underripe, and fruits brought in by boat may be too ripe and have the vinegary odor of fermenting pineapple. Choose plump fruit with rind that is neither shriveled dry nor soft, especially at the base. Leaves should be crisp and uniformly green.
The larger the pineapple, the more edible flesh there will be in proportion to waste. If there are two or more large fragrant fruits, choose the one heaviest for its size. Store an underripe pineapple whole, at room temperature, away from sunlight, for up to 2 days. Keep a ripe whole fruit in the refrigerator in a perforated plastic bag. Store trimmed fruit in an air-tight container.
To prepare pineapple, cut off the leaves at their base, removing all traces of green. Using a large knife, slice off the bottom rind. Stand the pineapple on its base and cut off the rind from the sides, using wide down ward strokes and catching as little flesh as possible while being sure to remove as much of the eyes as possible. The fruit can be sliced crosswise and the core of each slice cut out with a small knife. Or use a heavy knife to cut the pineapple lengthwise into quarters. Cut away the core, then slice the quarter in wedges or chunks. Do not throw away the core pieces without nibbling off all the good flesh around the edges. To shred the flesh, pull it apart with two forks. Pineapple is delicious baked, grilled, sautéed, and stir-fried. Pineapple is also good canned, frozen, dried, and candied.

PLUMS
While there are only two or three species of peaches or apricots, we can choose from sixteen or more species of plums. Many are wild purple, red, or yellow American plums, ¾ to 1 inch across, and named variously Beach, Sand, Wild Goose, and Sierra plums. They make superbly tart sauces, jams, and jellies. American plums are yours for the picking. European plums are a little larger, 1 ¾ to 3 inches long, and usually oval, although some are round. Sugar filled blue or purple common plums are usually dried for prunes, but they are also excellent stewed or baked in compotes and for canning. Recommended varieties are French Prune, Imperial, Italian Prune, Stanley, and Sugar. European plums include also golden dessert quality Greengages, astringent blue Damsons, and small yellow Mirabelles, incomparable for preserves. Pits are usually freestone in European plums but clingstone in the Japanese type. Japanese plums are most of what we buy for eating out of hand and cooking. They are larger and juicier, with a richer tart, sweet flavor that is often spicy. Red fleshed Santa Rosa and Elephant Heart are excellent dessert plums. Elephant Heart is also good for cooking, as are dark purple Friar, purplish red Wickson, and green Kelsey. There are fresh plums from mid-May to mid-October. Japanese plums come first, peaking in August, then the European sorts arrive for autumn.
Tree or shrub ripened plums are what you hope for, but the fruits are often picked underripe. They will soften at room temperature, although sugars will not increase, nor will flavors develop. The problem is that it is difficult to tell a fully ripe plum from one that has softened while waiting at the market, since both will give slightly when gently pressed between your hands. Here is another instance in which you must taste a sample before buying. Avoid fruit with cracks or moist soft spots near the stern area. If the plums need ripening, leave uncovered at room temperature or place in a paper bag out of the sun, turning daily. Refrigerate ripe fruit in a perforated plastic bag for up to 3 days. Japanese plums are finest eaten out of hand, since they are so juicy. European plums are best for cooking, since they are drier and their pit comes away cleanly. To prepare European plums for cooking, rinse and slice in half around the seam, twist to open, and remove the pit. Use in halves or cut into quarters or slices. Leave the peel on for maximum flavor and nutrients, although it will add tang. If it must be removed, use the blanching technique. Remember to add slices of firm plums to all sorts of salads. Plums are marvelous poached or baked whole in a little sugar syrup, with shreds of orange and a dash of cinnamon. Serve them cold. Plum cobblers, pies, and tarts are among the most delicious of desserts. Plums are excellent for canning, freezing, and of course drying.

POMEGRANATES
Pomegranates, with their tart sweet ruby seeds, are in season autumn through December. Pomegranates are picked ripe. The fruits should be heavy for their size and burstingly plump. The crown should be slightly soft when gently pressed, and the leathery rind should be lustrous rather than dull and dry. When using the fruits in a centerpiece, leave them at room temperature as briefly as possible, for they dry out in warmth. However, refrigerated in a perforated plastic bag, the fruits keep for up to 2 weeks.
Most children are fascinated by pomegranates and love to pick out the jewellike morsels one by one (resulting, of course, in clothes stained scarlet). Use a serrated knife to slice off the blossom end of the fruit, including some of the white pith but none of the seeds. Score the rind lengthwise in 4 or 5 places. Place the fruit in a large container and cover with cool water. Let it soak for about 5 minutes. Keeping the pomegranate under water, gently break the fruit apart along the scoring lines. Pull back the rind and separate seeds from membranes. In the water, the light rind and pith will float and the heavy seeds sink. Use a sieve to skim off the debris, then pour the seeds and water into a colander. Pat the drained seeds dry and store, tightly covered, in the refrigerator until needed; they will stay fresh for at least a day or two.
There are two ways to juice a pomegranate. (Although the stains usually come out, wear a big apron when doing this.) For jelly, you can cut the fruit in half and ream it on a juicer. The sugar and the method of cooking seem to keep the jelly from tasting bitter.
To prepare juice for drinks or syrups. crushing the membranes releases their tannin into the juice, resulting in juice that is woefully bitter. Rinse the fruits and firmly roll them around on something hard until they have softened somewhat; this helps release the juice inside. Slice the fruit in quarters over a bowl, remove and discard the rind, then pull out the seeds, placing them in the bowl and discarding the rest of the fruit. Wrap the seeds a handful at a time in a damp cloth and squeeze hard into a bowl. Squeeze out every drop. For crystal clarity (although you will lose volume), cover and refrigerate the juice for a day or two, up to a week to let the surprising amount of sediment settle to the bottom. Pour off the clear juice carefully.

PRICKLY PEARS
In this country, these juicy berries the size and shape of an egg are most often purplish red or deep yellow. In others parts of the world, they may be cream colored, chartreuse, pink, or even purple verging on black. They have many names: cactus or Indian or Barbary pear or Indian fig, tuna (Spanish), or sabra (Hebrew). The fruits are prickly outside but watermelon sweet inside. Prickly pears are filled with small seeds, and in some varieties, the seeds are edible. Most fruits are harvested in the West in August through December. The fruits grow with small rosettes of spines scattered over their peel. Select ripe fruits, but to test them, pick each one up with a folded paper bag, since there may be bits of needles still in their flesh. The spines are supposed to be removed before the fruit is shipped, but there is no guarantee. Those prickly pears that yield when gently pressed between your hands are ready. Store at cool room temperature out of the sun. When they are ripe, refrigerate in a perforated plastic bag for up to 2 days.
To prepare for eating which is invariably raw, wear thick rubber gloves. Rinse, then cut off the ends and score with the tip of a knife lengthwise in quarters. Peel off the skin, then slice or cut into quarters, or scoop out the flesh and puree it, then strain out seeds. Serve prickly pear as a bright mild accompaniment with a wedge of lime or lemon, since the flesh lacks acid. The flesh freezes well as a puree, and scarlet prickly pear jelly is brilliant colored.

QUINCES
To fill a room with sweet, rich fragrance, place a ripe gold quince in the middle of it. A member of the rose family, a quince looks like a pear that grew fat and lumpy with a stubby neck. Probably because they are too astringent to eat raw, quinces have fallen out of favor in this country. But when slices are poached until translucent and a deep shade of red, their flavor is reminiscent of rose and apple, with a touch of pineapple in the variety called Pineapple quince. Not every variety of quince reddens when cooked; some turn gold.
Quinces are available in October and November. Buy lots when you find them, as they keep for up to 2 weeks in a perforated plastic bag in the refrigerator. Select fruits with some fragrance, although they will ripen nicely at room temperature. Avoid those with spots, bruises, and tiny holes that could indicate worms. Handle gently, for, surprisingly, these fruits bruise easily. The core of a quince is flint hard. To prepare: Rub off any fuzz, peel with a vegetable peeler, and use a cleaver or heavy chef's knife to cut the fruit in half and then in quarters. With a paring knife, trim out the core, dipping down to remove all the white grains. Quinces cook just like apples except they can take up to twice the cooking time. For superb flavor, replace one quarter to one third of the apples in a recipe with quinces. In the Middle East, quinces are commonly baked and stewed with meat. Rich in pectin, the fruits make glorious sweet preserves and candy.

Raspberries:
When perfectly ripe, a raspberry's flavor is ambrosial-sweet but tangy. Taste large raspberries before you buy them; they may be bland. The berry becomes hollow after picking, as its stem and core remain on the stalk. Most raspberries are red, but yellow (or amber) raspberries are mutations from the red. Some yellow raspberries are delicious, but others are flavorless; most are unusually soft. In preserves, yellow raspberries may not cook to an appealing color (experiment with a small amount before committing to a batch and, if necessary, mix in red raspberries to lift the color). Black or Blackcap raspberries are glossy purple black and almost round, very much like red raspberries but with a more pronounced flavor and more seeds. They are excellentfor all uses. Purple raspberries are a cross between black and red raspberries. Their color is dull dark red when raw, but they cook to a rich red. They usually taste like tangy red raspberries. Their tartness makes them especially good in preserves. The berries are larger than red raspberries and tend to be soft.
Raspberries have two seasons. Depending on the area of the country, locally grown early raspberries appear in late spring through midsummer, and late berries in midsummer through autumn. To eat them fresh, sprinkle with sugar if they are tart and serve with softened vanilla ice cream or heavy cream. Raspberries are so soft that they easily dissolve into a fragrant scarlet sauce when heated. Cooked raspberries have a special affinity with red currants. Raspberries freeze but do not can well.

RHUBARB
Botanically a vegetable, rhubarb has stalks that look like cherry red celery but are less watery. Their flavor is tartness itself with a fruity aftertaste. Field grown rhubarb is available principally in April and May; hot house rhubarb is available in some parts of the country year round. Usually hothouse stalks are pink or pale red. They have a less tart flavor and are less stringy than field grown stalks, which are a richer red with a richer flavor to match. When choosing rhubarb, pick crisp, firm stalks, ideally no more than an inch wide, and the deepest reds in the bin. If leaves are attached, they should be crisp. Slice the leaves off when you get home and discard them, since they are mildly toxic. Rhubarb does not ripen once harvested. Store whole stalks in perforated plastic bags in the crisper for up to 3 days.
A little sugar or honey helps set its color in cooking and smoothes out the tang. To prepare, rinse and then trim the tops and bottoms of the stalks. If the stalks are stringy, peel them back with a small knife as for celery and remove the coarsest strings before cooking. If the stalks are over 1 ¾ inches wide, slice them lengthwise in half. Cut crosswise into 1 to 2-inch pieces. If sugar is a concern, you can stew rhubarb without sugar, since it will be sweeter after cooking. Sprinkle the pieces with water in a heavy skillet and cook until tender, then stir in sugar to taste. Continue cooking until the desired texture is reached, remembering that rhubarb will continue to soften and cook as it cools. Rhubarb is particularly delicious with oranges and strawberries, so we usually add one or the other to the cooking fruit. Rhubarb cans and freezes well and makes good pies, preserves, and jelly.

Strawberries:
Two hundred years ago or so, the modern strawberry began its evolution from small wild strawberries, called wood strawberries. Today the tiny wood strawberry (raise des boil) is still unsurpassed for fragrance and flavor. The slightly larger Alpine strawberry was derived from wood strawberries. However, breeders are delivering more and more luscious varieties, even some very large strawberries that are superb. Modern strawberries can be heart shaped, conical, rounded, squarish, or teardrops. Local berries are most plentiful between midspring and midsummer; wood and Alpine berries come in midsummer. Rinse the berries before serving only if they were commercially raised or if; in your garden, they got muddy or have been exposed to sprays. Do not rinse tiny berries at all if you can help it. A gentle shake in a towel removes dust while saving the fragile flesh from losing flavor to the rinse water. Keep caps on berries until serving time, as the gash left after removing them exposes the berry to spoilage. To hull the berries, use your thumb and finger to twist the cap off. Even the tip of a small spoon catches some of the berry with it. But if you are hulling hundreds of berries for preserves or freezing, the tip of a spoon or a strawberry huller is most practical. In fruit cups and salads, leave berries whole only if they are bite-sized: it is awkward to pop an enormous berry in the mouth and frustrating to try to steady a berry in order to cut it with a fork or spoon. If strawberries must wait more than an hour or two before serving, sprinkle them with sugar, cover tightly, and refrigerate. Strawberries' greatest affinity is for cream in any form. An idiosyncrasy of most strawberries is that they tolerate no middle ground in terms of cooking. Their bright flavor and color pale and their texture droops in the baked crisps and slumps in which blueberries and blackberries excel. Only in sweet preserves, when strawberries are boiled at full tilt and every, element is intensified, are they a match for eating fresh. They are not good canned but may be dried. Strawberry juice is tasty when freshly made.

Syvan berries:
Syvan berries are a cross between boysenberry and marion berry. They are large, shiny black, mild, and very sweet.

Tamarinds
The dark brown pulp scraped from inside tamarind seed pods is deliciously rich and acid, something like tangy pureed prunes. The pulp can be turned into fresh relishes and long keeping chutneys and cooling drinks. In season from November to May, fresh tamarind pods are sporadically available in Hispanic and Asian markets. Almost always for sale are 8 ounce packets of pulp. Choose the softest one you can find and soak it in boiling water for 10 to 15 minutes. (As a general rule, measure 1/3 cup boiling water for a tablespoon of pulp.) Mash it thoroughly with a fork to separate the seeds and fibers from the pulp. Strain the pulp, pressing down on it to squeeze out as much juice as possible. Seal leftover pulp airtight and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 months or in the freezer for up to 1 year.

Tangelos:
Tangelos are mandarin and grapefruit crosses. Minneola is the most popular tangelo, available December through April. Its rind is deep orange-red, and the fruit has a prominent neck, which makes it easy to recognize. Select it as for a mandarin. It is easy to peel, the flesh is wonderfully juicy and rich but tart, and there are few to many seeds. Whereas Minneola looks like a mandarin, ugli resembles the grapefruit side of the family. It has a thick, bumpy, orange-green rind but sweet, juicy flesh with few seeds. The segments separate easily and can be used all the ways grapefruit segments are. Ugli fruit are available in spring.

Tangors:
Tangors are orange and mandarin crosses. They resemble mandarins and are selected and used the same way. Available January to March, Temple is regarded as a tangor, but it may be a cross between orange and pomelo. The rind is deep orange-red, and the flesh is spicy and juicy.Temples are also seedy and comparatively hard to peel. Murcott are in season from January to March, has unknown parentage. It is referred to as a mandarin, but some specialists think it is a mandarin/orange cross. Murcotts have bright orange rind and rich flavor. They are easy to peel and have many seeds.

Tayberries:
Tayberries are another raspberry and blackberry cross. Very large, purple-red, and cone shaped with solid centers, tayberries must be enjoyed where they grow, as they are too soft to ship.

Yongberries:
Yongberries are purple-black, similar to boysenberries but sweeter.

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