People like eating bananas at different stages of ripeness. Personally, I like them when they are at their yellowest, with no brown showing. My grandmother, on the other hand, preferred them covered in brown spots. Regardless of how you fancy the final product, most fruit has to be picked at a very strategic time in its growth cycle. This is determined by the length of time each species requires to come to full maturity and how long they will take to get to market. And colour plays an important part in this decision process.
Bananas are picked when they are still very green for they will continue to ripen even after harvesting. With the aid of time, temperature and ethylene they will gradually ripen. Ethylene is a gas that is sprayed on fruits like bananas, tomatoes and lemons to help fast-track aging. Some fruits, like cherries, stop ripening the moment they have been removed from their life source. A cherry’s colour signals its level of sweetness. As with bananas, we like our cherries a certain way. Pickers will often carry a colour chart when harvesting cherries to assess their Brix (sugar) level. One degree Brix is 1 gram of sucrose in 100 grams of solution (see the Cupid Cherry chart below).
Fruits are designed to attract mammals and birds who eat the seeds contained within. Once digested, they are distributed for future propagation. Colour indicates to the consumer what a fruit has in store.
