If it withers, it's real. Fresh produce.

How do you choose when buying fresh fruits and vegetables?

Surely, if it's an avocado, you might give it a gentle squeeze, and if it's a banana, you’d likely choose one with less discoloration. After all, if you don’t, you might end up picking a bad one.

However, it seems there are other ways to distinguish good fruits and vegetables. The other day, I came across something interesting while watching YouTube.

The story is about the first person in Japan—and in the world—to successfully grow pesticide-free apples. He explained that truly fresh fruits and vegetables don’t rot; they wither. At first, this idea didn’t quite make sense to me, but it turns out to be quite groundbreaking. The skin of fruits and vegetables is packed with nutrients, but when pesticides are heavily sprayed, we have no choice but to discard this nutrient-rich outer layer.

Citrus fruit peels, in particular, have a wide range of culinary uses and pair well with herbal teas. When I buy lemons or oranges, I sometimes peel them and dry the peels for later use. The fruit itself is wrapped and stored in the fridge. This way, I can make the most of the nutrient-rich peel instead of throwing it away. And how sustainable is that!

While watching the channel, I remembered something—when I bought lemons at the supermarket the other day, they usually mold and discolor after a few days. But this time, they withered… They withered before they could mold.

At that moment,

"This has to be pesticides! That’s why it’s drying out and getting rock hard instead of rotting. Normally, it would turn green with mold, right?"

I said this to my son, but in reality, I later realized for the first time that I had actually bought a high-quality product from my local supermarket.

So, if your fruits and vegetables wither, it means you’ve made a good purchase. If the produce you buy naturally withers, take it as a sign that you’re consistently choosing fresh, high-quality ingredients.

That said, I do wonder if it’s really okay to keep them until they wither… Ideally, you’d want to eat fresh produce quickly. But it would be nice if, just when you’ve almost forgotten about them, they wither and remind you!