CHAPTER 1
WHAT IS RIPE?

IF YOU’RE GOING TO GO TO ALL THE EFFORT IT TAKES TO PLANT, TEND, and manage a garden—and certainly if you’re spending your hard-earned money on fresh produce—you deserve to pick the most perfectly ripe fruits and vegetables possible. Knowing how produce ripens is key not only to harvesting or buying the best produce, but also to controlling the ripening process for fruits and vegetables that ripen off the vine, and others that can be affected by them.

Mel Bartholomew always said, “Start at the beginning.” So the first step in understanding ripening is the definition: Ripe is the stage of growth or maturation in which any fruit or vegetable is at its ideal point to be eaten. Makes sense, doesn’t it? If the goal of edibles is to be eaten, ripeness is the peak of flavor and texture, and the point at which nutrients are most concentrated.

That’s a good starting point, but keep in mind that some plants, such as greens and many root vegetables, can be picked when immature and still deliver plenty of value. They may not be totally “ripe” but they are still desirable. So the definition doesn’t cover the whole issue of ripe. Things are just a little bit more complicated than the definition makes them out to be.

Few feelings can match the satisfaction of harvesting ripe produce fresh from your garden.

GARDEN WISDOM: COMPANION PLANTING

At first glance, companion plants may not seem to have anything to do with ripeness, but they’re more relevant than you might think. Planting natural companions to garden fruits and vegetables helps protect those crops against insect and disease problems. But it’s just as important to avoid planting your edibles with certain plants known in gardening circles as “enemy plants.” Enemies can attract pests that will attack the companion plant and, more often, they compete with the plant for nutrients, leading to more feeble harvests than normal.

• Collard green enemies are celery, potatoes, and yams.

• Beans and peas shouldn’t be grown next to garlic, onions, or shallots, because the ripe beans could be stunted.

• Corn and tomatoes should be separated, because both are attacked by the same worm.

• Cucumbers should be grown away from sage, because the herb harms cucumber plants.

• Strawberries should be planted far from cabbage, because they compete for nutrients.

The idea of ripe applies to pretty much any crop you can grow or buy. But how and when a fruit or vegetable gets ripe is another matter entirely. Most fruits and all vegetables have to ripen on the plant, because their growth stops the moment they’re picked (these are called non-climacteric). After that point, they get no riper, even though they still age, deteriorating in quality as they do. Other fruits continue to ripen naturally even after they’ve been removed from the plant (these are called climacteric). That’s why you can buy unripe bananas and they’ll peak in flavor and texture a few days later, while a watermelon will never get any riper than the day you pick it (so you better know it’s ripe when you harvest or buy it!).

The difference between climacteric and non-climacteric produce is ethylene gas… or, actually, the amount of ethylene gas. This gas is produced by virtually all plants to one degree another. But in climacteric fruits, the amount of gas is high and acts as a hormone that stimulates ripening. In other words, climacteric fruits have the mechanism to ripen themselves. That’s pretty handy because it means they can be picked unripe and transported to market.

Climacteric or not? Knowing which of these ripens itself will affect how you store it, and whether you can buy the fruit unripe or not.

Ethylene gas is the reason these bananas can make it thousands of miles to your local market without rotting during the trip.

CLIMACTERIC FRUIT	NON-CLIMACTERIC FRUIT
Apple	Asparagus
Apricot	Blackberry
Avocado	Blueberry
Banana	Bell pepper
Fig	Broccoli
Honeydew melon	Cherry
Kiwi	Cucumber
Mango	Hot pepper
Nectarine	Grapes
Papaya	Grapefruit
Peach	Eggplant
Plum	Kale
Tomato	Lemon
	Lettuce
	Lime
	Orange
	Pineapple
	Pomegranate
	Pumpkin
	Raspberry
	Spinach
	Squash
	Strawberry
	Watermelon
	Zucchini

Non-climacteric fruits and vegetables don’t ripen in the presence of ethylene gas, but the gas does speed up aging and deterioration of these crops. That’s why storing different fruits and vegetables together can be tricky. If you store the wrong combination of fruits and vegetables, some will spoil more quickly than you anticipated.

THE MAGIC OF ETHYLENE

Just as hormones control aging in humans, ethylene gas can control ripening in climacteric fruits. But how does it do that? Ethylene breaks down the cell walls of the fruit so that the internal compounds mingle, making the fruit juicier and creating a complex flavor. Of course, once the cell walls are broken down, the fruit loses its structure and becomes softer. If the fruit is not eaten, it will eventually just rot or turn to mush.

Climacteric fruits usually should not be stored enclosed with non-climacteric fruits. Simple enough, right? Put a cut banana in the vegetable drawer with lettuce greens, and the greens will age and deteriorate much faster than they otherwise would. You’ll wind up with limp, tasteless salad greens in a day and wonder how that happened.

Of course, the opposite is true too. You can use the principle to serve your own needs. Corporate growers and fruit distributors use ethylene gas to artificially speed up ripening in the produce they’re shipping. Bananas come off the boat from Ecuador completely green, and a distributor puts them in a room filled with ethylene gas. The bananas are ready for sale, mostly ripe, in a day or two.

You can actually use this effect yourself to ripen produce that, for one reason or another, you bought or picked unripe. (In fact, you’ll find covered “fruit ripening” bowls at retail for just this purpose.) It might have been the end of the season, or maybe they were the only tomatoes left on the produce aisle.

You can speed up the ripening of a pear, for example, by putting it into a paper bag with an apple. (This method also works by submerging the fruit itself in dry rice or covering it in a soft, clean dishtowel.) The apple will emit a wealth of ethylene, which will increase the rate of ripening in the pear. Whatever the case, knowing which fruits and vegetables ripen themselves can be mighty handy. Here’s a list of fruit that can be artificially ripened in this way.

CAN BE BAG-RIPENED	CANNOT BE BAG-RIPENED
Avocado	Apple
Banana	Blackberry
Cantaloupe	Blueberry
Honeydew melon	Cherry
Mango	Cranberry
Nectarine	Gooseberry
Papaya	Grapes
Peach	Lemon
Pear	Lime
Persimmon	Orange
Tomato	Pomegranate
	Raspberry
	Strawberry
	Tangerine
	Watermelon

You’ll find more information about using climacteric produce to control ripening in the individual listings throughout Chapter 2, and Chapter 3 covers ways to control ripeness and extend the life of the produce you grow or buy.

Vegetables are all non-climacteric and ripen more slowly and in a more controlled fashion than fruit does. That often translates to a longer shelf life (well, longer life in the refrigerator crisper bin). Because of their makeup, vegetables won’t release their true flavors, smells (if any), or nutrients until their cells are crushed—either through cutting, chewing, or cooking. Ripening heightens these effects. Don’t believe it? Cut open a ripe yellow onion and slice open a scallion of the same cultivar. Take a deep whiff. The difference between the intensity of reaction in the ripe (onion bulb) and unripe (scallion) versions should be painfully clear.

THE IODINE TEST

Want to see ripe in action? (Or want to show your children a little basic food chemistry?) Try this experiment. Iodine can be used to determine ripening or rotting in fruit because it reacts differently to starch and sugar. Cut an apple in half and put a drop of iodine on the exposed flesh. If it turns black, the fruit hasn’t even started to ripen. If it turns blue or black after a couple seconds, ripening is in progress, but not complete. If it turns yellow or orange, ripening is finished, and the fruit is on its way to rotting.

SEASONAL & CONDITIONAL RIPENESS

There’s ripe and then there’s ripe. When and how certain fruits and vegetables ripen can radically affect how they taste. Seasonal factors can play a large part in how a fruit or vegetable ripens, and the same crop may be noticeably different picked ripe in two different seasons.

For instance, many cool-weather crops can be grown in spring and fall, but the fall versions, kissed with frost, will be much sweeter because the colder temperatures trigger the plant to convert starch to sugar. That’s because sugar essentially functions as antifreeze inside plant cells. Keep in mind a light frost is one thing. A heavy frost or hard freeze will damage many plants, unless you’ve applied several inches of mulch or otherwise protected the plants. Here are some examples of crops you may want to plant in autumn:

SWEETER AFTER FROST

Beets

Brussels sprouts

Cabbage

Carrots

Collard greens

Kale

Leeks

Parsnips

Rutabagas

Spinach

Swiss chard

Turnips

Seasons aren’t the only factors that make for different notions of ripeness in the same edible. Ripe is relative, regardless of how straightforward the scientific definition may be. Although there is a perfect moment of ripeness for a tomato—a point at which it is exactly between rock-hard and mushy, and the color is a brilliant red with a rich, full flavor—other plants are not so definitive.

Spinach picked young can be delectable because the “baby” spinach leaves are tender, fresh, and lightly flavored. If you want a few simple greens to add to a mixed salad, baby spinach may be just the thing you’re after—even though those leaves couldn’t be considered scientifically “ripe.” Mature spinach has its place in dishes cooked and fresh, and you’ll certainly realize more of it if you let it mature, but it’s a perfect example of a plant that may have many versions of ripe.

Many sturdy garden greens become noticeably sweeter after a light frost, but a hard freeze will kill them.

There is an intangible in getting the ripest produce from your garden: diligence. Nothing substitutes a daily check of your plants because so many variables can affect ripeness. A sudden period of hot weather, a variation in the amount of water the plant gets, and even excessive weeds can slow down, speed up, or otherwise affect ripening. This is why the “days to maturity” listing on a seed packet has to be considered a ballpark estimate. There’s no way a seed manufacturer can accurately predict exactly when fruits or vegetables will ripen in your garden.

It’s not just that your local climate may vary significantly for the norm in your zone. There are just too many variables that can affect plant ripening. Disease and pests are at the top of the list. Some diseases in plants can stop fruit from ripening. Other diseases and conditions can cause fruit or vegetables to ripen imperfectly—not what you want see after putting a lot of effort and resources into your garden.

When it comes to berries, cherries, and tree fruits, birds can’t get enough. If you want to protect your share of the harvest, netting is a simple, inexpensive option.

Pests are part of the picture too. Birds and wildlife like ripe produce every bit as much as humans do. They can be good indicators of when a certain fruit or vegetable is perfectly ripe. However, raccoons can also strip a grapevine, gophers can steal carrots, and birds can decimate a cherry tree amazingly fast. Unless you’re okay with sharing your harvest, keeping any eye out for garden thieves is all part of getting your crops to that deliciously ripe perfection.

Optimizing ripening starts with taking steps to ensure plant health. Know how much water your specific plants need and when they need it (some plants, such as watermelon, ripen best when you discontinue watering at the end of the ripening process).

FASTEST-RIPENING VEGETABLES

Plant	Fastest Variety
Radishes	25 days
Scallions	28 days
Cucumbers	53 days
Peas	60 days
Turnips	60 days
Zucchini	70 days

Ultimately, that is why there is simply no substitute to knowing your garden intimately when it comes to harvesting perfectly ripe produce. Mel Bartholomew was a big proponent of gardeners spending time with their plants every day, even when there wasn’t anything that needed to be done in the garden.

There are a lot of upsides to this type of attention. You catch disease and pest damage early, giving yourself a chance to address it. You’ll notice overly dry soil (or overly wet) and can adjust your watering. You’ll gain a sense of how things are progressing and, in becoming more familiar with the unripe state of fruit and vegetables, you’ll be keenly aware of that moment when they mature to fully ripe. In short, you’ll give yourself a leg up in harvesting ripe crops at the perfect moment.

In the end, it’s all about never having to ask, “Is it ripe?” because you’ll already know the answer.

Picking ripe fruit and vegetables is the most rewarding part of gardening for children and adults alike.