How picky are you when you pick your produce?

[Pam R]

Does it bother anyone else how they bag up all the grapes now? 

Yes. And if there aren't any good bags, I'll open them up and take out the good ones, leaving the bad ones there. Why should we knowingly pay for rotten produce?

I'm picky. I thump, squeeze, sniff, etc. I open the containers of grape tomatoes to make sure they aren't soft. I pull the bags of pea pods from the back of the cooler and check them all to make sure I get the best ones.

[ChefCrash]

What? None of you taste?

Do you think it's gauche?

You don't bring back the tasteless melons, peaches, grapes, coconuts etc.. to the store. You throw it all out. Why not taste the fruits, vegetables and other products that can be sampled?

[lesfen]

I'm visual first. If it doesn't look good, I'm not even going on to the next step. Then I'll pick it up and roll it around in my hand to get a better look. Then comes the sniffing and squeezing.

[Pierogi]

Does it bother anyone else how they bag up all the grapes now?  I realize they do it to reduce the store's write-offs, but sometimes you're paying for a lot of bad stuff.

←

It's even more annoying if you're a single like I am, with an admittedly limited attention span (I hate left-overs), and all the bags are a pound or over. I have basically given up buying grapes, cherries and strawberries in the grocery store because I just can't get through the entire package before they rot. Luckily, even though TJ's produce is still pre-packaged, the packages are smaller, so I can usually eat the edible parts before they start to walk out of the fridge under their own power.

[KLwood]

Ill also admit to individually selecting green beans .but you realy know that youve crossed into obsessive territory when you find yourself picking through the bulk food bins at Whole Foods for the best dried figs, prunes and dehydrated mango slices...

Im also pretty particular when it comes to lemons, my moms advice about only picking the ones with 'small pores and smooth skin' seems to be holding true.

Im as much of a Tomato Snob as the next person, and its led me to my latest bit of larceny : I was picking over some so called " Premium Vine Ripened Beefsteak " tomatoes and noticed just how easily the stickers that identified them as such came off .... same with the 'cheapie flavor free hydropnic ' variety that was less than half the price.. Hmmmmmm. the urge to stick it to The Man ,( or in this case, re stick it.. ) has so far prooven irresistable. The sad thing is that its still pretty much hit or miss, even with the so called premium varieties.

Another recent produce hangup ive gotten into is selecting Pineapples that have 'healthy looking' tops, not necessarily as an indicator of freshness or taste, but to plant ..

[annecros]

Does it bother anyone else how they bag up all the grapes now?  I realize they do it to reduce the store's write-offs, but sometimes you're paying for a lot of bad stuff.

←

It's even more annoying if you're a single like I am, with an admittedly limited attention span (I hate left-overs), and all the bags are a pound or over. I have basically given up buying grapes, cherries and strawberries in the grocery store because I just can't get through the entire package before they rot. Luckily, even though TJ's produce is still pre-packaged, the packages are smaller, so I can usually eat the edible parts before they start to walk out of the fridge under their own power.

←

I've had the same delimma for a while, until I asked a produce guy at Publix one day if he could split a bag of grapes for me. He informed me that though the grapes, cherries, etc were prebagged, they were still purchased by weight at the checkout, so feel free to slide open the the zippy closure and chose what I need from the larger bag into the regular produce bags.

I have since received similar hospitality at Winn Dixie, Albertson's and Whole Foods. And see a lot more half empty bags in same.

Same with a hand of banana's. Take the two you want, leave the rest.

Word. I guess I am in the picky category.

Tomatoes, I pick off the vine in the yard.

[Busboy]

A related question is how do you handle farmer's markets? There it's not so much a question of whether this peach is better than that peach but are this grower's strawberries better than that grower's? A lot of stands put out samples, but a lot don't, so I've become pretty brazen about just looting a cherry at every stand until I find which I like best that day. The variations can be quite extraordinary. With larger fruits, I stiff compulsively, and I was never so proud as when I saw my young daughter imitating daddy, holding cantaloupes almost as big as her head up to her ear, listening carefully for the tenor of the "thump" she administered, and then giving the things a great sniff before settling on the one she wanted.

How do others choose?