Summer Fruits

A guide to storing stone fruit

It’s our favourite time of the year, the summer fruits have arrived!

Whether you prefer a fluffy peach, with its velvety skin created by the sun, a couple of chilled plums eaten messily over your knees at lunch, or a freshly washed sweet nectarine. Now is the perfect time to get in first for your weekly delivery of Office Fruit Seasonal Box!

Seasonal October to April

How to choose: Gently squeeze plums, peaches, and nectarines; they should yield slightly if ripe. Look for richly coloured plums no brown spots. Peaches and nectarines should have no green or wrinkly patches.

How to store: To ripen the stone fruits store at room temperature, stem-end down, this usually takes 2 to 3 days. Once a sweet, flowery smell means peaches and nectarines are ripe and should be refrigerated, unwashed, in a plastic bag. Ripe plums have dull skins.

Shelf life: Ripe plums and yellow peaches will last in the refrigerator for three to five days. Nectarines and white peaches ripen more quickly; refrigerate them for only a day. Storing ripe stone fruit in the crisper drawer will prolong its eating life — it should keep for up to a week when refrigerated.

Best uses: Like berries, stone fruits are wonderful eaten out of hand. Sliced peaches or nectarines are a perfect addition to salads or cheese and fruit platters. Plums are the perfect on the run snack food.