I wish I knew how to detect those hidden defects one encounters in otherwise perfectly nice avocados. I’m talking about when you cut one open and discover a network of brown threads running through it, or big brown blemishes deep within the fruit (as opposed to those rather obvious bruises just beneath the skin).
Tips, observations and advice all welcome.
Thanks.
I feel my avocados for imperfections such as dips, wopsided, to soft, uneven ripeness etc. if I feel one that is softer on one side than the other I pass it over. If the meat is more sunken in than the skin it’s overripe. Last weekend they were 69 cents and there were lots of bad ones I had to avoid to select the 8 we used for guacamole. I’m far from an expert but rather an amateur with a strategy.
for me it has been: the cheap ones (or those from cheaper stores) have more blemishes. Those from Costco have very little and cost more. Those from Trader Joe are smaller, cost less, and are almost as good. You can get nice, cheap fruits from stores in season, but telegraphic summary: when it comes to avocados, you get what you pay for.
Hi Mark,
Check this out:
I just bought a pack of 6 which were not plump, but so far all four I have eaten were unblemished inside. Hass has a long season, but I think in summer and fall we get another variety, since Hass is the last to mature, from November up to March. There are also, since a few years, avocados with remarkably small pits. don’t know the name of that variety but it surely does not look like Hass.
All very useful- and thank you all. The Northwest Edible blog was great. I’ll put all the advice to work.
I’ve been buying an avocado every other day now. If you are a regular eater, try to buy them hard and firm at least 3 days before you intend to eat it. Store them with bananas or whatever else is ripening at the time. The store ripened ones are ripening while being bruised and battered during storage.
I have the opposite suggestion. If you find good avocados, buy many and keep them in the fridge. They resist at least a week, possibly more, without any ripening. Take out a couple at a time to place on the counter to ripen.
Bumping this up because I finally solved my avocado dilemma, or at least I think I did.
It appears you should not store your avocados and onions together. I was leaving them both sitting out in a common wire basket and carefully chosen avocados would go bad on me in just a day or two. One day I tried separating them and haven’t had a problem since.