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Plantains: How to Prepare Them

Maybe you’ve seen them before: green and yellow bananas that are very similar to conventional bananas, but look a bit larger and more angular. We explain what plantains are, what is important when it comes to storage and present two suitable recipes.

What makes plantains different from regular bananas?

Plantains are also known as plantains or vegetable bananas. The counterpart to this are fruit bananas – yellow, sweet bananas that most of us are familiar with. The two varieties are similar in shape, but the plantain is usually slightly larger and thicker. But there are other differences:

In terms of taste, fruit and vegetable bananas hardly resemble each other. Depending on the degree of ripeness, plantains have a floury consistency and a neutral taste. That is why they are often compared to potatoes. They are also used in the green-yellow state in a similar way to potatoes, for example in soups or as a puree. After a while, the bananas turn from green to yellow before finally turning black. Black plantains are mild and sweet and are best used in desserts and sweet dishes.
Plantains are more difficult to peel than conventional bananas, especially at first, due to their firm skin. You should always use a knife to peel green and yellow plantains. To do this, first remove the ends and then cut the banana lengthwise before peeling off the skin.
Unlike fruit bananas, you should only eat this variety raw when it is fully ripe.
Unripe plantains can be processed into flour, which is a gluten-free alternative to regular flour.

Fried Plantains: A Recipe

For this recipe you need:
2 plantains (the riper they are, the sweeter they taste)
Olive oil, sunflower oil or vegan butter
1 pinch of salt
optionally:
2 tbsp sugar
vanilla sugar
Cinammon
How to prepare fried plantains:
Peel the plantain and cut it into slices. The cut can run slightly diagonally.
Heat the oil or vegan butter in a pan.
Fry the banana slices on both sides until they turn golden brown. Sprinkle some salt over the plantains.
If you want to sweeten the bananas additionally, sprinkle some sugar on top. If you like, mix the sugar with some cinnamon and vanilla sugar as well. After about 30 seconds, the sugar should caramelize.
Take the finished fried plantains out of the pan and let the oil drip off a little.
The fried plantain goes well as a side dish with rice or black beans, but also tastes great on its own as a snack or dessert. For a savory version, use green plantains and then season them with salt, pepper, chilli powder or paprika powder.

This is how you prepare plantain puree

For two servings of plantain puree you need:
2 green plantains
2-3 onions
3 tablespoons vegetable margarine
2 tablespoons oil
salt and pepper
The preparation:
Peel the plantains and cut them into chunks.
Boil them in salted water for 20-30 minutes until tender.
Meanwhile, peel the onions and cut them into rings.
Blend the plantains with the margarine to a creamy puree. Alternatively, you can use a potato masher for this. If the consistency of the puree is too thick for you, add some water or plant drink. Season the puree with salt and pepper.
Heat the oil in a pan and sauté the onion rings for a few minutes.
Finally, garnish the finished plantain puree with the onion rings.

Plantains: where to buy them and how sustainable they are

Plantains are mainly grown in South America, for example in Colombia, and in African countries such as Uganda or Ghana. But Malaysia and India are also cultivation areas. The vegetable banana therefore has to travel long distances before you can buy it here in the Asian shop or in well-stocked supermarkets. The plantain does not have a good ecological balance.

Similar to fruit bananas, working conditions on the plantations for plantains are often poor. We therefore recommend, if you have the opportunity, to buy the ingredient in organic quality and with a fair trade seal. You can also prepare some recipes with sweet potatoes instead of plantains. But this is only a more sustainable alternative if you get the sweet potatoes from regional cultivation.

Plantains ripen faster at higher temperatures. You should never store them in the refrigerator; a place protected from light at room temperature is better.

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Wild Carrots: How to Plant, Care For And Use Them

As the archetype of today’s carrot, the wild carrot is also an important food source for insects. The white flowers attract bees, butterflies and beetles. You can read here how to plant the wild carrot and how you can use it.

The wild carrot is the archetype of today’s carrot. It belongs to the umbelliferae family and is widespread in large parts of Europe, North Africa and Asia. It usually grows on roadsides or embankments. You can eat their roots just like those of cultivated carrots, but wild carrots are significantly smaller and less tender. In addition, the wild carrot has a long tradition as a medicinal plant.

Read here how to cultivate wild carrots in your garden and how you can use them.

Wild carrot in your garden

The wild carrot is the archetype of a classic example of old types of vegetables. If you grow them in your garden, you make a double contribution to maintaining the diversity of varieties: in addition to the types of vegetables that you get, the original form of the carrot with its white umbels offers valuable food for insects. According to NABU, the wild carrot is very popular with many insects. These include wild bees, sawflies, bugs, beetles and flies. Some caterpillars, such as those of the swallowtail, particularly value the wild carrot as a food source. It is therefore also a good addition to an insect-friendly garden.

You should consider the following points so that the wild carrot feels comfortable in your garden.

Location: The wild carrot prefers a sunny location, but also thrives in semi-shade.

Floor:
The original form of the carrot is quite adaptable as far as soil conditions are concerned.
In nature, it grows on dry, calcareous and well-drained soils.

Planting and caring for wild carrots

The wild carrot is usually a biennial herbaceous plant. In the first year, it forms its leaves close to the ground, which are arranged in a circle. The wild carrot only flowers in the second year. It grows between 10 and 30 centimeters high. Although the roots contain hardly any carotene and are therefore white instead of orange, their scent is strongly reminiscent of carrots.

If you want to plant wild carrots in your garden, we recommend using organic seeds. In this way you avoid genetic engineering and support the diversity of varieties.

How to plant wild carrots:
The wild carrot is one of the so-called cold germs. It therefore needs a longer cold period at the beginning in order to be able to germinate.
From April you can sow the wild carrot directly into the bed. If you want to cultivate them as a vegetable, a planting distance of about 40 centimeters is recommended. For a wild flower meadow, you can simply scatter the seeds widely.
How to care for the wild carrot:
Until the seeds start to germinate, be sure to keep them moist.
In addition, you only need to water them during long periods of drought.
Since the wild carrot is used to nutrient-poor soil, you do not need to fertilize it.

This is how you use the wild carrot

From a culinary point of view, the wild carrot is particularly valuable because you can use all parts.

Root:
If you want to process the roots of the wild carrot, you should harvest them at the end of the first year. Once the plant has started flowering, the roots become woody and very sharp. In the first year, on the other hand, they store sugar and are particularly sweet.
You can eat them raw or cook them like regular carrots.
leaves and flowers:
You can use the young leaves to prepare wild herb salad, process them like spinach or use them as soup greens.
It is best to harvest the leaves in spring, between April and June, before the stems harden.
The young flowers are also edible. You can use them to decorate dishes. When cooked, they add a pleasant flavor to your dishes.

Fruit:
The fruits or seeds of the plant are rarely used. Basically, you can use them as a spice similar to aniseed or fennel, which come from the same family.
The seeds are ready for harvest from September to October.
Due to its diverse effects, the wild carrot is also considered a medicinal plant. It is traditionally used, among other things, for digestive problems or to regulate menstruation. Here, too, all parts of the plant are used.

According to a study from 2017, the wild carrot also has other healing properties:
antioxidant
anti-inflammatory
conducive to wound healing
hypoglycemic
lowers cholesterol levels.
Tip: If you collect the wild carrot in nature, you can recognize it by its characteristic dark spot in the middle of the light flowers. This spot has also given it the name “carrot”. It is said to attract insects and thus help with pollination. But beware: There are some doubles of the wild plant, such as the poisonous dog parsley, with which you should not confuse the plant.

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9 Common Pasta Mistakes – And How to Avoid Them

Everyone loves pasta. But you can do a lot wrong with this supposedly simple dish. We explain what you should pay attention to if you want to indulge in pasta happiness in a sustainable and enjoyable way.

“Making pasta is also cooking!” Anyone who wholeheartedly agrees with this student motto is not alone: ​​pasta is at the top of many people’s list of favorite foods. But from the purchase to the preparation to the use of leftover pasta, you can do a lot wrong.

If you keep a few things in mind, pasta is not only a delicious dish, but also a healthy and sustainable one. You should avoid these common mistakes:

1. Always choose “normal” spaghetti

Durum wheat semolina pasta is delicious, but if you stick to it, you’re missing out.

2. Mismatching sauce and pasta

Not all noodles are the same – and combining them with the right sauce is a chapter in itself. Because only when both are coordinated can the taste really come into its own. As a rule of thumb, long, thin pasta like spaghetti or linguine are perfect for oil-based or creamy sauces.

Thicker or slightly chunky sauces and pesto combine well with short, thick, textured pastas like rigatoni, fusilli, or penne. The sauce sticks to the windings of the noodles, and ingredients such as pieces of vegetables can be mixed in perfectly – while long noodles quickly sink to the bottom of the plate.

3. Cooking pasta wrong

One would think that cooking pasta is not the fine art of gastronomy. Nevertheless, there is a lot to consider, because common mistakes reduce the enjoyment.

Many hobby cooks use a pan that is too small or too shallow, too little water and too little salt. If you add the salt at the beginning, you prevent the noodles from absorbing it optimally – so it’s better to only add salt when the water is boiling. Another mistake: putting oil in the water. Although it ensures that the pasta does not stick together, it also seals the surface of the pasta and the sauce can no longer be properly absorbed.

If you stir too little during cooking, the noodles will stick together – a wooden spoon is good for short varieties, and a fork is recommended for spaghetti & co. You should also be careful not to exceed the correct cooking time, otherwise it means “arrividerci al dente”.

4. Pour away the pasta water

Pasta water is far too valuable to be thrown down the drain – and has the potential to become a liquid all-purpose product for cooking and baking, for your plants and even for your skin and hair.

5. Quench pasta

Once the noodles are in the colander, the sources of error continue: You shouldn’t quench your perfectly cooked, al dente pasta with cold water – this will wash the starch off the surface and the sauce will no longer stick to the noodles as well.

6. Serve pasta wrong

Now it’s a matter of timing: If the sauce isn’t ready yet and the pasta waits too long in the sieve to be used, it will quickly become sticky. When serving, you should not spread the sauce separately on the pasta, but mix both in the pot beforehand – this is how the elements fuse perfectly.

7. Discard leftover pasta

Most hobby cooks portion pasta by eye. And it is not uncommon for the quantities to be misjudged when the stomach is growling. However, if you have leftover pasta after eating, don’t throw it straight into the trash – it’s a waste of food that really isn’t needed.

You can store a small amount in the fridge for a short time and turn it into a new meal with some freshly cooked pasta. You don’t want to eat any more pasta in the next few days? No problem either: you can freeze pasta without any problems.

8. Buy conventional pasta

The basic noodle consists only of durum wheat and water.

9. Buy pasta in plastic packaging

A mistake that most pasta comes with: it is wrapped in plastic. Anyone who buys pasta currently has few alternatives to avoid this plastic waste.

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Drying Porcini Mushrooms: This is How You Make Them Durable

Porcini mushrooms cannot be grown commercially, so they are not available fresh all year round. However, if you dry porcini mushrooms, you can preserve them. We’ll show you how.

Drying porcini mushrooms: the right preparation

Before you dry the porcini mushrooms, you should take the following precautions:

Dry the mushrooms as soon as possible after picking. This is the best way to preserve their aromatic taste.
Wet porcini mushrooms are not suitable for drying, as they easily mold. Therefore, only clean the mushrooms with a slightly damp cloth before drying. You can also scrape off dirt with a sharp knife.
Cut out any eaten spots on the porcini mushrooms. The best way to dry porcini mushrooms is to cut them into slices three to five millimeters thick.
Now you can decide, because there are two ways to dry porcini mushrooms without a professional dehydrator: in the air or in the oven.

Air dry porcini mushrooms

Air-drying porcini mushrooms is the easiest and most environmentally friendly option. However, you need the right weather for it. The air drying process only works when the weather is dry and as hot as possible. How to do it:

Thread the porcini slices on a thin thread or spread them out on a baking sheet. The mushroom pieces should not touch each other.
Dry the porcini either in full sun or in the shade. The former speeds up the drying process, but the latter is gentler and better preserves the aroma of the mushrooms.
If the mushroom slices are on a baking sheet, you should turn them several times a day. If you dry the mushrooms outside, you also have to bring them inside in the evening, otherwise they could absorb moisture from the cool night and morning air.
The duration of the drying process varies depending on the weather. The dried porcini mushrooms are ready as soon as they are dry on the inside but can still be bent. They also rustle like dry leaves.

Drying porcini mushrooms in the oven

Drying in the oven requires more energy. Proceed as follows for the drying process in the oven:

Spread the porcini slices on a baking sheet and place in the oven.
Then let the mushrooms dry at a maximum of 50 degrees and circulating air. Important: Hold the oven door ajar with the handle of a wooden spoon so that the moisture in the mushrooms can escape into the oven.
With this drying variant, too, the duration of the drying process varies depending on the performance of the oven.
Tip: If you have a stove with a stone plate, you can also let the porcini mushrooms dry on this plate while the fire burns in the stove. This way you don’t use any additional energy.

Properly store dried porcini mushrooms

You should store dried porcini mushrooms in airtight jars in a dark, dry place.

Stored in this way, dried porcini mushrooms will keep for several years. If they get a slight gray tinge after a while, this is harmless: they are leaked minerals.

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Harvesting Walnuts: This is How You Collect Them For The Winter

You can harvest walnuts in autumn and stock them up for the whole winter. But harvesting alone is not enough. We’ll tell you what to look out for.

Harvesting walnuts – when does that work?

Walnuts are healthy and delicious. In addition, they can be stored well and for a long time. What could be more obvious than stocking up for the winter in autumn? If you have the opportunity, you should use it.

Walnuts ripen in the fall. They can be harvested from mid-September to the end of October. Strictly speaking, the term “harvest walnuts” is not so apt. Because you shouldn’t harvest walnuts from the tree. Rather, you wait until they fall from the tree on their own and collect them. This way you can be sure that they are really ripe.

Harvesting walnuts – this is the best way to do it

When walnuts grow on the tree, they have another, softer shell in addition to the hard, woody shell. This shell is initially green. When the walnuts are ripe and fall from the tree, the green shell bursts open. Later it turns black.

Especially in damp grass, the outer shell can quickly start to mold. Therefore, you should collect the nuts as regularly as possible. Preferably daily. It is best to sort out walnuts that are moldy or infested by caterpillars immediately.

Clean and dry walnuts

After collecting, you need to clean and dry the healthy walnuts. Remove the green outer shell by hand. You can also use a brush to remove any residue that gets stuck.

Drying the cleaned walnuts is not difficult. To do this, place them in boxes or baskets in a single layer if possible. It is best to turn them once a day or mix them vigorously. It is important that the walnuts dry as quickly as possible. Otherwise you run the risk of the walnuts starting to get moldy. An airy place with 20 to 25 degrees is best. If you dry the nuts outside, you should put them inside in the evening. Otherwise they will get wet again during the night.

The walnuts are dried enough when they lose about 50 percent of their weight. This is of course a bit difficult to control. The drying time is about three to six weeks.

Storing walnuts

After the walnuts have dried, you can store them for several months. Make sure that they are stored as dry and airy as possible. High humidity can lead to mold. It is best to hang the nuts in bags or nets.

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Storing Potatoes: These 7 Tips Will Keep Them Fresh For a Long Time

Storing potatoes properly is not difficult at all. The most important thing is that you protect them from light. Otherwise they will quickly start to germinate or turn green. Here you can find out what else you should pay attention to.

Store potatoes correctly: protect from heat and light

Potatoes begin to germinate quickly in warmth and light. The toxic germs cannot be eaten and they deprive the potato of important nutrients. As a result, it shrinks and loses flavor and firmness. Sprouted potatoes can have high concentrations of toxic glycoalkaloids. This substance is also contained in green potatoes and makes them intolerable. You can prevent or at least delay the potatoes from germinating and turning green by storing them correctly.

In addition, potatoes can easily go moldy – even one affected tuber can spread the rot to many other potatoes and possibly make the entire harvest unusable.

With a little experience, you can even store potatoes for many months until the next season. This is practical because you can buy local potatoes in advance without long transport routes. The late potatoes are ripe in September and October, the early potatoes as early as June.

7 tips for storing potatoes properly

Choose a dark place for storage: for example your pantry, the basement or a shed in the garden. If you don’t have all of this available, you can also store the potatoes in a linen bag in the kitchen to protect them from light.
Pay attention to low temperatures, because the potatoes start to sprout from around 10°C. At the same time, it must not get colder than 4° C, otherwise the starch in the tubers will turn into sugar, which will affect the taste. Ideal for storing potatoes is 4°C to 8°C.
Protect the potatoes from frost (e.g. when storing them in the garden or in cold cellars) and never put them in the freezer.
Store them in a dry and airy place so the potatoes don’t get moldy or rot. A linen sack or a wooden box in which the potatoes are loosely stacked is suitable for storage. Plastic bags are unsuitable for storing potatoes. If you have enough space in the garden, you can also build a potato tower.
Check your potatoes from time to time: If small sprouts have formed, the affected tubers must be eaten as soon as possible. Rotten potatoes must be removed immediately and disposed of with organic waste. Regular rearranging also ensures adequate ventilation.
Store potatoes separately from fruit, especially apples. The ripening gas ethylene that many fruits give off will otherwise quickly spoil the potatoes.
Only undamaged potatoes with an intact skin and without bruises or sprouting are suitable for long-term storage over several months. Slightly damaged potatoes should be eaten quickly. If the potatoes are stored well distributed on slatted frames, they will keep for months.

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Parsnip or Parsley Root: How to Tell Them Apart

Parsnip and parsley root look confusingly similar. We’ll show you how to tell the two types of vegetables apart.

Parsnip and parsley root: these are the differences

Parsnip and parsley root are two types of root vegetables that are best known as fall and winter vegetables. So you can get the two tubers in Germany from October to February from regional cultivation. They are very similar in shape and color: both are white to beige in color and get narrower towards the end.

However, you can easily distinguish between the two roots by a few basic characteristics:
Parsnip and parsley root are two types of root vegetables that are best known as fall and winter vegetables. So you can get the two tubers in Germany from October to February from regional cultivation. They are very similar in shape and color: both are white to beige in color and get narrower towards the end.

How to use parsley root and parsnips

You can use parsnips and parsley roots in a similar way in the kitchen. Both bulbs are suitable as individual side dishes or as an ingredient for soups, stews and vegetable pans. You can also eat them raw and use them grated for salads, for example.

However, you should note that parsley roots taste much spicier – so only use them in moderation. Parsnips, on the other hand, are a good basic ingredient thanks to their mild aroma and are also suitable, for example, as a puree or baby food or as an ingredient for casseroles and gratins. If you slice them and bake them in the oven, you can also make healthy oven fries from the root vegetables.

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Drying Rose Hips: This is How You Can Preserve Them

If you dry rose hips, you can also enjoy the delicious vitamin bombs out of season. We will show you some methods and also tell you what is important when collecting rose hips.

Collecting rosehips: That’s what matters

Before you can dry rosehips, you must first collect them; The fresh fruit is usually not available for purchase. You can harvest rose hips from October. At this point, the small fruits are ripe enough and you can dry them easily. They will not lose quality in the coming weeks either. However, from December they can begin to ferment.

You can collect rose hips either in your garden or in nature. To be on the safe side, you should wear gloves when harvesting. You may remember school pranks and the itch a crushed rosehip leaves on your skin. With gloves you are on the safe side. Also, to avoid stains, don’t wear your best clothes.

Depending on where you collect the rose hips, you can also make sure to pick closer to the top of the bush. The lower berries are significantly more dirt and exposed to the odd dog. Never pick all the rosehips from a bush, as they are an important food source for birds in winter.

You should wash the collected rose hips thoroughly. If you like, you can cut the berries lengthways and scrape out the seeds. But that is not absolutely necessary: ​​rosehip seeds also provide many vitamins as well as valuable omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.

Drying rose hips: In the oven or in the dehydrator

You can dry rose hips either in the oven or in the dehydrator. This is the best way to go about it:

Place the washed rose hips on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or on a rack in the dehydrator. Make sure that the berries are not too close together: otherwise they will only give off the moisture to each other and it cannot escape properly. If you plan to dry a large batch of rose hips, it’s better to use multiple trays.
Set the oven or dehydrator to 40 degrees Celsius. If you’re drying the rose hips in the oven, you should also place a wooden spoon between the oven door and the oven. This will remove the moisture from the oven.
Once in the oven or dehydrator, the rose hips take about eight to twelve hours to dry, depending on their size. This time is reduced if you have already air-dried them a little beforehand.
The following applies to this method: the hotter, the faster. However, if you set the devices to more than 40 degrees Celsius, the rose hips lose valuable vitamins during drying.

Unfortunately, the energy consumption is very high due to the long time in the oven or in the vending machine. It is more sustainable to dry the fruit in the sun or on a heater. So you don’t use any additional electricity when drying. This method is also gentler on the rose hips, which means you retain more vitamins.

Drying rose hips: In the sun or on a heater

If you dry rosehips in the sun, you should choose a sheltered place – otherwise birds may snatch the fruit. You can place a fine sieve or discarded curtain over the hips to protect them, or place a fruit bonnet over them.

If you store rose hips on the heater, you have a lot less to worry about. During the autumn rosehip season, your heating is probably on anyway – and birds won’t get in your way in the apartment either. If you have pets, you should still be careful and maybe choose a high-level heater for drying. While rose hips are not harmful to dogs and cats, you want some of the fruit yourself. A nice side effect of this method is the fruity scent that develops when the rose hips dry.

Rose hips dry without an oven: Further information

If you want to air dry rose hips, it is best to place them on some newspaper or a kitchen towel on an oven rack. In this way, warm air also reaches the berries from below. With the heating method, it is sufficient if you dry the rose hips on newspaper or a cloth. The same applies here: it is better to leave a little more space between the fruits so that the moisture can really escape. Also, if the fruit touches, mold can form in those places.

The rose hips need several days to dry both on the heater and in the sun. You should turn them regularly so that they dry evenly on all sides. If in doubt, it is better to dry the rose hips a little longer. This reduces the risk of them still being damp on the inside and mold forming later.

After drying, it is best to store the rose hips in an airtight container. Store the jar in a cool, dark place, for example in a storage room or in the basement. The dried rose hips will keep for several months.

Use of dried rose hips

You can enjoy dried rose hips, for example, as a tea, as a topping for muesli or as a small snack in between. You can also make rosehip powder yourself from the dried fruit. In addition, dried rose hips are suitable as a special ingredient for smoothies or sauces. They add a great fruity component to savory dishes in particular.

In small amounts, dried rose hips are also suitable as an addition to dog food and provide your four-legged friend with important vitamins. And of course you can also simply use dried rose hips to decorate autumn or winter arrangements, Advent wreaths and the like.

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Storing Mangoes: How to Store Them Properly

Mangoes taste fruity and sweet. You can read in this article how to store mangoes correctly and how they are in terms of sustainability.

Mangoes are a popular southern fruit. Not only do they taste good, but mangoes are also healthy. It’s important to store mangoes properly so they stay fresh for as long as possible before you eat them. Throwing away mangoes would be a particularly bad thing, as they mainly grow in the tropics and subtropics and are exported from there to Germany. Mangoes therefore cause quite a bit of CO2 emissions. Especially mangoes that are imported by plane pollute the environment. Many supermarkets label fruit that has been transported in this way.

Because of its tropical origin, you should try not to eat mangoes too often. If you’re looking for a local alternative to mangoes, you can use peaches or nectarines. These do not taste identical, but the taste and appearance of the pulp are similar. Take a look at our seasonal calendar for more regional alternatives. You can plant a leftover mango seed, but in our latitudes it is difficult for fruit to grow on the tree and if so, only after several years.

Basically, we recommend buying organic food. Then they are free of chemical-synthetic pesticides. With the exotic mangoes, a fair trade seal indicates fair trade.

Factors affecting how mangoes are stored

The best way to preserve and store a mango depends on several factors:

Ripeness: Above all, the fact whether your mango is already ripe or not yet has an effect on storage and storage. You can recognize a ripe mango by the fact that it smells intensely and gives slightly when you (lightly) press the peel. Note that color is not an indicator of ripeness, as there are varieties that remain completely green. If the skin has brown speckles, the fruit is usually ripe.
Bruises: If the mango has bruises, you should cut them away immediately. Bruises promote the formation of mold, which can quickly spread to the whole fruit.
Whole fruit or (partly) cut: The storage also changes whether your mango is still whole or whether you have already cut it.

You should keep this in mind when storing a mango

Basically, it can take a few days to a week for a purchased, unripe mango to be ripe. Ripe mangoes only last a few days.

Store loosely: You can store a mango in a fruit bowl or similar. It should lie loosely so that there are no pressure points. Therefore, do not put heavy fruit on top of the mango or even jam it in the peel or bowl.
Neighboring fruits: To speed up the ripening process, you can put the mango in the sun or keep it with apples, tomatoes or bananas. These give off ripening gases that can affect neighboring fruit and vegetables. You can read more about this in the article Store fruit and vegetables together – or separately? read. If your mango is already ripe, it is better to keep it away from direct sunlight and the fruits and vegetables mentioned.
Temperature: Store mangoes at room temperature. Neither unripe nor ripe mangoes should be kept in the refrigerator. On the one hand, the cool temperature slows down the ripening process. There is a risk that the unripe mango will spoil rather than ripen. On the other hand, because it can lose its taste there. You should only put a (partly) cut mango in the fridge. But then consume or process them promptly.

This way you can keep mangoes longer

Freeze a mango by slicing it into chunks and placing in a sealable freezer-safe container. This makes sense if you realize your mango is already ripe and you can’t process or eat it in time, or if you have some of your mango left over. It keeps frozen for a few months.

You can also enjoy a mango as dried fruit. To do this, cut them into pieces and dry them in the sun, in the oven or in a dehydrator. Dried mango can be kept for up to a year.

Cooked mangoes in the form of mango chutney or as jam or marmalade will keep for about a year if unopened. This is also suitable as a gift or souvenir.

Of course, it’s best if you only buy as much mango as you can use in time. Mangoes go well with many dishes. For example, you can give your salad or curry an exotic touch. It is a sweet highlight in fruit salad, smoothie or yoghurt. Add them to desserts like cake or ice cream.

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To Peel Persimmons or Not? This is How You Eat Them Properly

Whether or not it is necessary to peel persimmons depends on several factors. In this article you will learn how to best consume the sweet exotic fruits and what you should bear in mind when doing so.

Whether you peel persimmons or not depends on your preferences. Basically, the skins of the persimmons are edible and you can eat the orange fruits with their skins.

Unripe persimmons do not taste good due to the high tannin content. Therefore, when shopping, you should consider whether you want to eat the persimmons right away or in a few days. In this article, you will not only learn how to eat persimmons correctly, but also how to recognize and influence the right degree of ripeness.

The persimmon is the sweet fruit of the persimmon tree and originally comes from Asia. Persimmon trees need warmer growing areas because they are not frost-resistant. There is therefore no significant commercial cultivation of the orange fruit in Germany. Most of the growing areas are in China, Korea and Japan.

There are now also European kakis on the market, for example from Spain. In order to avoid long transport routes, you should prefer these fruits to those from Asia. If possible, buy kakis in organic quality: they are free of chemical-synthetic pesticides.

Peeling persimmons: you should know that

You don’t have to peel persimmons to eat them. However, there are a few basic things you should keep in mind if you want to eat persimmons with the skin on.

Use organic persimmons as their skins are untreated. In principle, however, you can also eat the skin of conventionally grown fruits.
You should always wash fruit thoroughly before eating. More about this here: Washing fruit properly: What to do about pesticides on the skin?
Depending on the type of persimmon, the skin varies in thickness. Thick-skinned specimens taste better peeled.
This is how you eat persimmons correctly

Wash the persimmons thoroughly with cold water.
Halve the fruit lengthwise.
Remove the hard carpels and the light-colored base of the stalk.
Cut the fruit lengthwise into four or eight wedges.
Whether you peel the kaki or eat it with the peel is up to you. If you want to peel the persimmons, cut the flesh off the skin, similar to a melon.
Scoop out persimmons

When persimmons are fully ripe and very juicy, they are easier to spoon than to cut:

Wash the persimmons thoroughly with cold water.
Halve the fruit lengthwise.
Using a small spoon, scoop the insides of the persimmon straight out of the shell.

Recognizing the right degree of ripeness of persimmons

In order to withstand the long transport routes, the harvested persimmons are usually still unripe. Unripe persimmons contain a high proportion of the vegetable tanning agent tannin. When you eat them, this gives you a furry sensation in your mouth. However, tannins are not harmful to health. As it ripens, the sugar content in the persimmon increases and the orange fruit tastes juicy and sweet.

In addition to the actual kaki, you will also find the cultivated forms in the trade

honey apple
persimmon and
Sharon.
The cultivated forms contain significantly less tannin and you can therefore eat them in a harder state.

This is how you can tell that the persimmon is ripe

The persimmon is ripe when it is very soft. The persimmon has reached the perfect degree of ripeness when the pulp shimmers through the skin with a glassy sheen. Fully ripe persimmons yield slightly when pressed lightly with your fingers. The shell should not show any brown spots or dents.

Transport and store ripe persimmons

When fully ripe, the persimmon is very sensitive to pressure. Therefore, make sure that you pack ripe persimmons to protect them from pressure when you buy them, so that you can transport them home safely. Store ripe persimmons refrigerated and eat within a day or two.

Allow unripe persimmons to ripen

If the persimmon is not yet ripe, you can store it next to bananas or apples for a few days. These secrete ethylene, which stimulates other fruit to ripen faster.

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