Written by Maria Pistocchi — Thursday, November 29th, 2012

All the beauty of a basket of fruit

The nutritionists keep saying it: eat more fruits and vegetables. A basket of fruit makes things easier!

All of us have to eat more fruits and vegetables, even if it may be difficult at the beginning. How to leave a good bag of chips for a crunchy apple? How to switch from a salty snack to a sweet one and still be satisfied?

It takes good will, a lot of patience and some tricks. First of all, as the wise people say, we have to change the way to see the things. For example a fruit may also have a decorative function; do you remember how many wonderful paintings of fruit baskets are there in the galleries all around the word? We too can beautify our kitchen with a basket of fruit!

Let's start with the beauty and we shall finish with the goodness

If, during all the year, you keep the fruits in the fridge or hidden in some shelf you will be sure that your family will not start to eat them. With a wonderful basket full of seasonal fruits under their eyes, the chances to eat one will increase. If you have kids, you can start with the tales of each fruit (Internet will help you, it's fantastic place for stories). Lastly you can cut the fruit in a creative way (you can find some masterpieces in Pinterest). When the beauty and the creativity work together, they reach the goal!

A basket of fruit

The magic apple

If you have an unripe persimmon, put it near to an apple and you will see that in one day the persimmon will ripen. Why? Because apple is magic. Its magic is called ethylene, a vegetable hormone produced by itself. Ethylene has been used in practice since the ancient Egyptians, in order to stimulate figs ripening.

Hence there are two kinds of fruits:

the climacteric (botany) ones;
the not climacteric ones.

Fruits as apple, persimmon, apricot, fig, peach, pear, kiwi, mango, banana, avocado belong to the first group. These fruits continue their ripening process even if they are separated from their plant In the case of avocado, it starts its ripen process only if it is collected, thanks to a substance which inhibits the ethylene until the fruit is no detached.

In the second kind of fruits we find for example lemon and orange that stop their ripen process when they are collected: they have not any feeling for the apple, which becomes magic only with its climacteric cousins, because it helps their ripening.

A basket of fruit (detail)