Choosing Plum Fruit - Keeping Fruit Fresh

Whether you're out picking your own fruit, or buying plum fruit at the market, here are a few simple plum choice fruit tips for choosing the best and keeping fruit fresh once you take it home.

Fresh ripe plums, that are ready to eat should be only slightly soft with a bit of 'give' when you squeeze them gently.

A taste test will offer a soft, sweet and juicy fruit. If you plan to freeze plums, or use them in preserves you can pick them slightly under ripe.

When choosing plum fruit avoid those that have discoloured skins or seep juice.

A plum's ripeness cannot be judged by its color. The many plum types each have their own color, yet they should all be soft when ripe and never hard.

Fresh, ripe, and ready-to-eat plums should have a bit of give when you squeeze them gently.

Firm or hard plums are generally not yet mature and don't taste right. Plums that are over ripe are too soft.

To speed up the ripening of a plum place the plums in a paper bag and leave them for a few days. Once plums are ripe store them in the fridge.

As plum fruit ripens and softens, the skin becomes less tart and the flesh becomes sweeter.

You can use plums as a substitute in recipes calling for cherries!

When dried, a plum becomes a prune. Dried plums are even sweeter than fresh plums, and have a chewy, sticky texture.

Make sure you remember to remove the pit before putting a plum through your juicer.

To get rid of fruit flies add a small amount of wine in a bowl wherever the fruit flies tend to be hanging around.