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| Avocado on a bed of spinach |
Avocados are not a local food. As they are not a local food, people here in central Wisconsin associate avocados only with guacamole, football, Green Bay Packers, and Superbowl games. (Did you notice that natural progression there Wisconsinites?)
Thing is, football season is the natural season when avocados start to ripen and come on the market. Economics dictates that when there are the most avocados available the price will go down, so they sneak into my market basket when the price hits $.49 each here. I am sure this barely covers shipping 1,800 miles from wherever in California they come from.
At $.49, though, I will eat them.
Thing with avocados, like apples and bananas, once you slice them they turn brown and are less than appetizing that way. They turn brown for the same reason, ethylene gas. This is why you should not store your apples, bananas, and avocados with other fruits (and no where near any bulbs and seeds you are attempting to cold stratify as it prevents the growth of the flowering parts).
You can use this mechanism to your advantage. Notice the avocado in the picture? It is chopped from a avocado I first sliced in half TWO DAYS AGO AND DID NOT REFRIGERATE.
All right, all right, all right...this is starting to sound like an infomercial.
A trick I learned from Beautiful Sister-In-Law who learned it from her Guatemalan sister-in-law; slice it in half, chop out what you need keeping the half shell skin in tact. Think of the avocado as two halves of a clam shell and close it back up when you slice out what you need. Cram both halves back into a wide-mouth pint Ball or Mason jar and do not refrigerate (ever).
A corollary to this process it leave those bananas in the plastic, if you are lucky enough to purchase them wrapped, or place them in a plastic bag to prevent them from turning brown quite so fast.
An added note is wash your avocados when you get them home from the market. Slicing a knife through the skin transfers germs and bacteria from the outside to the inside. Think all sorts of food-borne illnesses here. Do you ever buy an avocado without feeling it?
While you are at it wash that citrus and cantaloupe when you get it home for the same reasons! Personally, I have found it seems to double the shelf life.
YOU HAVE CHANGED MY WORLD!! I always used the clam shell idea, but then I squirted the remainder of the avocado with lime juice, squashed the half shell over the remainder and wrapped it up tight and refrigerated it!!! The avocado industry needs better PR!! The mason jar idea is great and I will NEVER refrig one of my avocados AGAIN!!
ReplyDeleteThank you and did I mention that you are awesome??! If not, well let me say it. Y'all are awesome. :)
Love avocado - expensive here but I get them when I can. I eat them in many forms. Jack
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