Picking Fruit the Right Way

Timing, technique and storage tricks to harvest perfect fruit to be proud of

You’ve got ripe fruit on your tree…now learn the all-important (but tricky) skill of choosing the perfect time to pick it. Back it up with great technique and proper storage and you’ll make the most of your precious fruit.

Did you know that fruit can increase in size by up to 100% in the last 10 days of ripening? Or that most of the flavour develops in that time? Or that if you pick too early your fruit may not ripen off the tree?

Bad practices like these are what has given supermarket fruit such a bad name! Too often fruit is picked too green, and precious size and excellent flavour are lost. Or it’s picked too late and the fruit is overripe and goes off quickly.

Choosing the right time to pick is one of the biggest challenges of bringing the harvest home. Poor picking technique and incorrect storage can also downgrade your precious crop.

In this course you’ll learn the ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ and figure out when your fruit is at the perfect stage of ripeness—crucially, for each fruit type (because they’re all different). Learn the picking techniques the professionals use, and how to store your fruit perfectly for every purpose.

What included in this module:

• Unit 1: Picking care & storage of cherries (article)
• Unit 2: Picking care & storage of apricots (article)
• Unit 3: Picking care & storage of apricots (video)
• Unit 4: Picking care & storage of peaches & nectarines (article)
• Unit 5: How to pick peaches (video)
• Unit 6: Picking care & storage of plums (article)
• Unit 7: When should I pick my apples? (article)
• Unit 8: Use iodine to test for apple ripeness (video)
• Unit 9: When should I pick my pears? (article)
• Unit 10: When should I pick my quinces? (article)