On 03/12/2016 05:26 AM, Dave Drum -> MICHAEL LOO wrote:

 DD> I've no experience with AirB&B - can these things be put on the plastic
like a
 DD> No-Tell? Or is it ca$h at the stairs?

Plastic.  Trust me.


MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05

      Title: Ripe Fruits - Part 5
 Categories: Fruits, Ffbb, Info
      Yield: 1 Info


       19.  Any advice about storage?
       At your service.  Fruits capable of ripening after they are
  picked should be encouraged to do so at room temperature, inside a
  paper bag or out.  Then these fruits, and all those incapable of
  ripening after harvest, should be eaten immediately or refrigerated
  (to slow respiration) in a plastic bag (to prevent water loss).
  Dehydration is the greatest enemy of freshness in ripened fruit and
  other produce. Lettuce leaves wilt then their cells deflate from
  water.  Try putting wilted lettuce in cold water; you will be amazed.
       But don't seal the plastic bag tight, or the fruit will ferment
  and mold.
       Before a fruit is ripe, refrigerator temperature will retard the
  process, may turn the sweeter sugars into glucose, and permanently
  deactivate the softening powers of plygalacturonase, and may increase
  acidity.  Given enough time, chilling will injure fruits of tropical
  and semitropical origin both before and after ripening.  Avoid buying
  very cold fruit in the grocery store.  Not only will you be unable to
  evaluate it aroma, but chilling injuries (such as mushy, fibrous
  flesh of a damaged peach) may not become apparent until the fruit
  returns to room temperature.
       20.  Is all this supposed to explain why most fruit in American
  supermarkets, except maybe cherries, is so awful?
       Partly.  There are other reasons too.  Until recently, fruit
  breeders concentrated only on size, color, firmness, and
  supernaturally uniform shape, at the expense of flavor, sweetness,
  and texture.  Some growers demand trees on which all the fruit
  matures at once, make it easier to harvest by machine.  Other
  overfertilize to increase their yield and overirrigate to increase
  the fruits' weight shortly before harvest.  And some years the
  weather refuses to cooperate.  But ripeness is, to paraphrase the
  poet, the biggest deal of all.
       There are four villains in the ripeness story:  the greedy
  grower, the venal wholesaler, the shortsighted retailer, and the
  ignorant and stingy consumer like you and me.
       To save on labor costs, growers use machines to pick, sort, and
  pack their fruit.  Ripe fruit cannot survive a run-in with these
  machines.  And when mechanical harvesters are used, they pick
  everything in sight - hard green, barely mature, and nearly ripe.
  Growers know that early fruit commands a higher price; all growers
  would like to recover their investment as soon in the season as
  possible; and most would like to sell whatever has not ripened by
  season's end.  Citrus brows pick early when they fear frost.
       Grower complain that fruit brokers and retailers make them
  compete on the basis of price alone, not with texture or flavor.
  Brokers contend that retailers refuse to accept delivery of produce
  too ripe to have a long and happy shelf life.  Retailers say that
  brokers buy only the easiest fruit to handle; they blame consumers
  for their unwillingness to pay more for more delicious fruit.  The
  magic of the marketplace has somehow failed us when inferior fruit
  forces out produce of higher quality.

MMMMM

---