The road to getting perfect, creamy avocados for your morning toast can be tricky. It starts with healthy soil and healthy trees, and the fruit itself requires plenty of care and attention to ensure that it grows to be the picture-perfect bundle of deliciousness that we all want in our fruit bowls.
Harvesting the avocados also requires a great deal of care to ensure that the fruit isn’t bruised or damaged before it ends up in your box. Thankfully we’ve done everything we can at our end to get you the freshest and healthiest Hass and Reed avocados delivered to your doorstep.
However, there are still plenty of things that you can do to ensure that your avocados ripen to perfection.
Firstly, it’s important to understand that the time required to ripen avocados will vary significantly depending on the time of year and environmental conditions.
At the beginning of the season, in July, it may take avocados up to three weeks to ripen after harvesting.
However, during mid-summer in February ripening may occur in as little as 4-5 days!
This is why it is so important for us to pick and send you the freshest avocados possible.
Here are a few ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ for you to follow to help you get the best out of your avocados.
- Unbox your avocados straight away and put them somewhere where you can monitor their ripening progress day by day. Avocados can become over ripe very quickly after reaching their optimum level of "yumminess" so don't miss it!
- Allow the avocados to ripen naturally at room temperature and away from direct sunlight.
- To accelerate the ripening process, try placing some of your avocados in a paper bag with some bananas, apples or kiwifruit. These fruit produce ethylene which will stimulate the ripening process.
- Once ripe, you can place your avocados in the refrigerator to extend their life by up to 5-7 days.
- Ensure half eaten fruit are sealed well to prevent oxidation which will cause the avocado to go turn brown and spoil.
- Share with friends and family to ensure that your avocados are enjoyed while they're at their best.
- Freeze your unused avocados by extracting the flesh, mashing it, and storing it in a sealed plastic bag with the air removed. It won't defrost to be as good as the fresh fruit, but it's close and it's better than wasting it!
- Check out our recipes page to discover delicious and creative ways to enjoy your avocados.
- Leave your avocados unopened in the box. There are plenty of variables which affect the ripening process so your avocados may ripen faster than they did with your last order. Make sure you can see them to monitor their progress.
- Refrigerate your avocados straight away. Yes, we know that's what the supermarkets do, but if you wanted that rubbish you wouldn't be on our website right now! Your household refrigerator is likely to be colder than the recommended storage temperature for avocados which could lead to "chill injury". As the fruit ripens this may become noticeable as:
- Black spots on the skin of the fruit
- Brown / grey flesh on the inside of the fruit
- Brown streaky lines through though the fruit (vascular browning)
- Uneven ripening leading to hardened areas of the fruit that don't ripen properly
Note: It may be possible to refrigerate your avocados for a short period of time before ripening them at room temperature. However due to the variables and risk associated with this storage method, we will not be able to guarantee fruit quality if it is stored in this way.
- Do not attempt to freeze whole fruit. It will not end well.
