How to Ripen and Store Stone Fruits

Learning how to prep, store and refresh your fruits and vegetables is an important part of making the most out of your Full Circle order. Spend a few minutes when you receive each order to clean, prep and properly store your fruits and vegetables. This will help increase their freshness and retain their quality.

Wait a Minute, What are Stone Fruits?

Stone fruits are fruits with a hard seed in the center and refer to cherries, plums, peaches, nectarines and their varieties. They are slightly different than some produce as they are often harvested unripe to maintain their quality during transportation. Follow these easy steps to clean, ripen and store your stone fruits:

Step 1 – Cleaning Stone Fruits

Since all of our produce is 100% organic you don’t have to worry about harmful pesticides, so a quick cleaning to remove any dirt under cold running tap water should be your first step. Lightly rub the surface of your fruits to completely remove any debris. Pat dry with a clean towel.

Step 2 – Ripening Stone Fruits

Peaches, nectarines, plums, pluots, apricots and other stone fruits are usually unripe when shipped. But use this simple test to determine if your fruit needs to ripen a little longer: press gently with the tip of your finger near the stem of the fruit. If it easily dents it is ripe, if hard, it needs a little more time. To ripen, store your stone fruits uncovered at room temperature for one or two days. You can also store them on a sunny windowsill or table to ripen quickly.

Step 3 – Storing Your Stone Fruits

Once ripe your stone fruits are ready to eat—cherries, for example are picked and shipped ripe and don’t need much additional ripening—and you want to keep them around for a few more days,they can be stored uncovered in your refrigerator’s crisper drawer for another 4-7 days. It’s important that your drawer be clean and dry. Any mold spores or humidity can quickly turn a bunch of delicious fruit into a moldy mess.

Follow these easy steps and you’ll increase your enjoyment of all your stone fruits!