Kiwi

Want plump, unblemished fruit free of soft mushy spots, bruises, or wrinkles. Ripeness is about give, not color: a ripe kiwi yields to gentle pressure like a ripe pear. Rock-hard kiwis are unripe and sour but will ripen at room temperature over a few days — speed it up in a paper bag with an apple or banana. Smell can turn fragrant when fully ripe.

Keep firm kiwis at room temperature to ripen, then move ripe ones to the fridge, where they hold for a week or more. Store them away from other ethylene-sensitive produce while ripening (kiwis are sensitive to ethylene and will over-ripen near apples and bananas — handy when you want them ripe, less so otherwise). Cut kiwi keeps a couple of days, sealed.

The two easy ways in: halve and scoop the flesh with a spoon, or peel the fuzzy skin with a peeler or knife and slice. The skin is edible and fiber-rich if you rub off the fuzz, especially on smooth gold varieties. Note: like pineapple, kiwi contains a protein-digesting enzyme (actinidin) that stops gelatin setting and can make dairy bitter or your mouth tingle, so add fresh kiwi to set desserts and jellies only at the last minute.