Fruit Ripening

I am a teacher's assistant for a 3 hour Food Science lab at BYU. It is a great class and I love teaching it. This week we talked about fruit and vegetable processing. One part of the lab we talked about fruit ripening. Here is an interesting hint on fruit ripening:

Climacteric Fruit: Ripens/Countinues to ripen after it is picked. Picking doesn't stop the ripening process. Examples of these are apples, avocados, bananas, peaches, and tomatoes. So make sure you pick all of your tomatoes before there is a frost and let them ripen on your counter.

Nonclimacteric Fruit: Doesn't ripen further once picked. Must be ripened on the vine. Examples of these are strawberries, cherries, citrus, grapes, and melons. These type of fruits will hold up better during transport since they stop ripening once picked.