Avocado: The Single-Seeded Berry

Most people love avocados with their smooth, buttery taste, but the challenge is finding an avocado that is ready to eat when you’re ready to eat it.

Check the color of the avocado, says Katy Green, Whole Foods Market’s produce field inspector. Its color will be a guide. Every variety has a different skin color and shape. Hass avocados range from green to black with various shades of purple and black. A green Hass will be very hard and will take 7 to 10 days to soften. Darker shades of black or purple-black are the ripest if you’re looking for one to eat the day you buy it.

Green recommends trying a squeeze test to gauge ripeness. There should be a slight give when you hold a ripe avocado in your hand. If it’s soft and gives too much, it’s beyond the perfect level of ripeness.

You can store your avocado in the fridge for about five days. If it feels a little firm, leave it out on the counter until it gives slightly to pressure. While there’s no way to stop an avocado’s ripening process, storing it in your fridge will slow it down. You can speed up the ripening process by putting your avocados in a paper bag with a banana or an apple.

Avocados can be difficult to pit, but practice makes perfect, says Green.

The creaminess of avocados makes them perfect for guacamole and salad dressing, or try using them in salads, muffins, or on toast.