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Apricots are fantastic when they're picked ripe. We grow a multitude of varieties. The varieties we sell change on a daily basis. They're always sweet because we always pick them ripe. Certain varieties grow larger than others do. The larger ones are generally juicier, and the smaller are drier.
As with a lot of things in life, there are no hard and fast rules for selecting apricots. Depending on the variety, they may be soft when ripe, or they may feel hard. Typically you should look for fruit that is entirely orange. (Orange and red is okay too.) There should be no green or greenish tinge. Some varieties become entirely orange before they're ripe. From some perspectives, these are great varieties for wholesaling because they can be picked early and transported long distances long before they're ripe. We have some trees that are like this, but we always wait long enough to pick them so they're sweet when we sell them.
Apricots are a notoriously perishable fruit. When we bring them to our wholesaler he
says, "If I can't sell them the next day, I might as well forget about them!"
Sometimes on
humid summer days apricots that we grade in the morning begin to decay by
late afternoon. This is particularly true if they're already soft and juicy.
If you must keep them, keep them in a refrigerator uncovered, as near to the freezing point as you can. (Don't freeze them though.) If you like them warm, take them out a couple hours before you want to eat them. If the apricots you get are one of the harder varieties, you can leave them out the fridge for a couple days. Leave them uncovered in a bowl at room temperature and they should soften with minimal spoilage
Apricots will keep in the refrigerator for about a week with minimal spoilage. (Unless it's the very end of the season.) Wash them just before use, not before storage.
We always pick our cantaloupe ripe and ready to eat. There's a big difference in taste between cantaloupe that has been picked ripe, and cantaloupe that never gets sweet because it was picked too green.
Choose cantaloupe that has some orange or yellow tinge somewhere on the surface. It's not necessary that the entire melon be uniformly one colour, but there should be coloration somewhere. Generally, if you can smell the "cantaloupeness" (Put your nose up to it!), it's ripe.
If the melon is very soft, it's overripe, but it should give a little if you give it a little squeeze.
Store them uncovered in the refrigerator before use. If you can't eat the whole melon, put the remainder back in the refrigerator in a plastic container or covered in plastic wrap.
If it's ripe when purchased, Cantaloupe should keep about three or four days in the refrigerator, cut or uncut.
Very little sweet corn is grown in Niagara-on-the-Lake. We are one of a tiny number of growers in Niagara who offer fresh and fantastic-tasting sweet corn. The bulk of the corn for sale in our region in grown in the Simcoe area, and purchased through the Toronto Food Terminal. Our corn is picked fresh every morning. Fresh corn tastes best because sweet sugars in the corn begin to convert to tasteless starches shortly after it has been picked.
Individual ears should feel "full" when the corn is mature. Depending on conditions during the growing season, this may or may not mean that the ear is full to the top. It takes experience to know what "full" means. Generally it's a large circumference, big enough so that if you feel it, you'd believe there's something there to eat.
Depending on the variety of corn, the husks might be dark green, or light green, and they might be large or small. When the corn is mature the kernels might be white, bi-coloured, light yellow, or dark yellow. You can tell very little about the quality (in terms of taste) by looking at the corn. Corn buying involves a lot of faith in your producer.
You should not see any holes in the husk. Typically these are indications of worms. But by looking at the husk, you can't always tell if there's a worm in there or not. If you should happen to get a wormy ear, break or cut off the part that's wormy. The rest of the cob's still good!
Don't store it. Eat it as soon as possible, preferably on the same day. No matter how you store it, the sugars will convert to starches. Refrigerated storage may delay this process.
We always pick our nectarines ripe and ready to eat. Ripe for nectarines doesn't mean soft, it means sweet. If you like them soft, let them sit uncovered in a bowl at room temperature for a day.
Nectarines are ripe when there's no green or greenish tinge anywhere on the fruit. The fruit should look firm and shiny, not dehydrated and dull.
If the nectarines are firm when you get them and you like them soft, leave them in an uncovered bowl at room temperature for a day and they'll soften.
Nectarines will keep in the refrigerator for 1-2 weeks with minimal spoilage. (Unless it's the very end of the season.) Wash them just before use, not before storage.
We always pick our peaches ripe and ready to eat. Ripe for peaches doesn't necessarily mean soft, it means sweet. If you buy hard ones and you like them soft, let them sit uncovered in a bowl at room temperature for a day.
Most varieties of peaches are ripe when the non-blush area is yellow. All peaches have red blush on them long before they're ripe. When selecting peaches, ignore the red blush and look at the non-blush areas. There should be no green or greenish tinge anywhere on the fruit.
If the peaches are firm when you get them and you like them soft, leave them in an uncovered bowl at room temperature for a day and they'll soften.
Peaches will keep in the refrigerator (uncovered) for 1-2 weeks with minimal changes in taste. (Unless it's the very end of the season.) If you try to keep them much longer than 1-2 weeks, they will begin to lose some flavour and the texture will begin to deteriorate. (Even though the fruit itself may not be spoiling.) Wash them just before use, not before storage.
We pick our peppers promptly every morning. If you come early enough, you'll see the dew on them.
Choose peppers that are firm and shiny, not dehydrated and dull. The size is inconsequential, unless you want them for stuffing or some other special reason.
Store peppers uncovered in the refrigerator. Refrigerated, they should keep 1-2 weeks with minimal spoilage.
Pickling cucumbers are suitable for eating fresh and for pickling. We pick our cucumbers fresh and we sell them the same day. There are very few cucumbers grown in our area. The vast majority of those sold on markets in Niagara are sourced from the Toronto market. By the time they reach the consumer they are at least two days old.
If you're pickling and you use our fresh cucumbers, you'll notice a drastic improvement in the quality of your pickles.
Choose cucumbers that are freshly picked and firm if possible. On the mornings we pick in the summer (usually every second day), our customers often line-up around 9 a.m. to get them as fresh as possible. On hot summer days, the cucumbers that we pick in the morning begin to feel soft by the afternoon. If you get them in the afternoon and they're a bit soft, soak them in cold water for an hour or so before pickling.
If you're buying cucumbers to pickle, don't store them; pickle them! You'll get far better results if you promptly pickle them instead of waiting. If you've bought them for slicing or salad, they're also best fresh. If you must store them, store them uncovered in the refrigerator. They should keep 4-5 days in the refrigerator, though they will begin to soften.
We grow many types of plums. The earliest to mature are the yellow oriental varieties (Early Golden, and Shiro). By mid-August we have several varieties of red plums. Purple plums (including prunes) start in late-August most years.
Yellow and red plums can be sour when picked, but still sweeten nicely off the tree. It's difficult to pick these plums so that they're sweet just off the tree because they have a propensity to sunburn if they're picked too late.
Provided that the yellow or red plums do not have skin abrasions, they should ripen well. Try not to choose plums that are already soft and have a translucent look, because they're overripe and won't taste very good.
Purple plums (including prunes) should be almost ripe when they're picked, because unlike yellow and red plums, they don't ripen well off the tree. Choose plums that have a uniform purple colour with no green or greenish tinges.
Yellow and red plums will sweeten well off the trees. Leave them in a bowl at room temperature. Yellow plums will gradually turn from greenish to yellow within two or three days. Any greenish tinges on red plums will turn yellow in a similar amount of time.
Purple plums (including prunes) should be just about ready to eat when you buy them. If you find them a bit sour, it sometimes helps to squeeze them a little just before eating them. (This releases some juices.)
Provided that plums are not overripe when you buy them, all types should keep in the refrigerator (uncovered) for 2-3 weeks with minimal spoilage. Wash them just before use, not before storage.
We don't grow potatoes in large quantities. Our objective in growing them is to dig fresh, new potatoes daily to sell in small quantities that will be eaten the same day.
Sometimes in the fall when we finish harvesting them we sell them in volume.
Potatoes should have no green areas on them at all. If they're green, it means the potato was photosynthesising while growing partially above the soil, or while sitting out in the sunlight after being dug. You can often tell if potatoes are fresh by the presence of moist soil... of course, this isn't sure-fire. We've had growing seasons where it's been so dry that no moist soil was to be found; and, as is common in grocery stores in Denmark, it's always possible to make them look fresh by adding moist soil.
Don't store the potatoes you buy from us. Eat them as soon as you can, preferably the day they were dug (being the day you bought them). If you must store them, leave them in a cool dark place. You shouldn't expect our potatoes to keep as long as those you may be accustomed to because we do not use growth inhibitors or irradiation.
We pick and sort our strawberries daily. Our customers are always pleased with the consistent quality, size and coloration we offer because they have been sorted.
Strawberries are generally best if they're entirely (or almost entirely) red. Some varieties turn almost entirely red but remain partially green near the tip even when they're ripe- that's okay. Generally you should avoid strawberries that are too green. They should also look shiny, not dull. Dull berries are usually either overripe or not fresh.
Strawberries are very perishable. Unless you have a high-humidity convection-based compartment in your refrigerator, it's best to eat them within a two days of buying them. If you plan on eating them that soon it shouldn't matter whether you keep them in the refrigerator or not. (Unless they're very ripe and it's very hot.)
The sweet cherries we sell are fantastic because we pick them ripe everyday and we sort them thoroughly.
The best way to know if cherries are ripe is to try one. That's what we tell our pickers to do. ("Before you start to pick a tree, taste them make sure they're sweet.") Stop by the market and we'll give you a sample.
Look for cherries that are a shiny deep purple (almost black), with green stems. And if it's allowed, try one before you buy a basket!
The cherries you buy from us are ripe and ready to eat. If you're not going to eat them within a day or two, you should store them in the refrigerator. Uncovered in the refrigerator they should keep a week with minimal spoilage. (Unless it's the very end of the season.) Wash them just before use, not before storage.
If tomatoes are stored in a refrigerator, they lose their flavour. In the interest of delivering the highest quality and maximum flavour, we never refrigerate our tomatoes.
Tomatoes are one of the most industrialised of fresh food products. It's not surprising that winter imports are red and tasteless because they're picked when they're entirely green and force-ripened in transit.
This selection guide is for field tomatoes, not imports.
If they're allowed to reach the ripening stage, tomatoes ripen from the inside out. This means that if there's even a little red on the surface of the tomato, it has already started to ripen. Once they've started to ripen, they can be picked and allowed to finish ripening without compromising the flavour. This doesn't mean they can be picked totally green and taste good if forced ripened; there must be some red on the surface when they're picked if they're ever to taste like a tomato should.
Look for tomatoes that have at least a little red and no skin abrasions.
Never refrigerate tomatoes, it causes them to lose flavour. Leave them out at room temperature. (Or perhaps a little cooler if you want to slow down the ripening.)
Field tomatoes ripen quickly at room temperature. A tomato that's almost entirely green will be ripe enough to eat in about four days. A tomato that's orange will be ripe in a day or two.
Perishability of tomatoes depends heavily on the field conditions during the year. In dry years, tomatoes can keep up to two weeks after having turned red. In wet years they don't keep as long. The best advice is to keep an eye on your tomatoes and eat the ripest ones first.
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