The 10 Best Fruit Hacks

Make Grapefruit Sweeter

It’s surprising, but true: A small amount of salt will make a grapefruit taste sweeter—not sugar. The salt lessens the acidity of the grapefruit, bringing its natural sweetness out more than the sugar.

Mold-Free Melons

To keep melons from getting moldy as they ripen, rub the exterior peel with a teaspoonful of full-strength vinegar every few days.

Fresh Apples All Day

We love this hack for keeping sliced apples from browning in your kid’s lunchbox with a rubber band! Hold the apple together while slicing (using an apple slicer works best), then secure the rubber band around it to hold it together. The cut edges will stay on the inside and until your child takes off the rubber band!

Keep Fruit Looking Fresh

Even though the taste isn’t affected, it’s still disappointing to unveil your fruit salad only to discover a thin layer of brown oxidation all over the fruit. A common method for keeping cut fruit looking fresh is to add a bit of lemon juice. However, an even more effective method is to fill a spray bottle with water and a few dissolved vitamin C tablets (usually available in the vitamin and nutritional supplement section of your drug store). Spray this mixture on the cut fruit and not only will you stop the oxidation, you’ll be getting added vitamins!

Mango Mission

If you slice open a mango and it tastes too acidic, place it in warm (not hot) water for ten minutes. This will speed up the process of its starches turning into sugars, and it will be sweet in no time! Just make sure not to leave it in the water for more than ten minutes, as it might begin to shrivel.

The Brown Bag Trick

You may have heard the trick that you can ripen fruit faster by placing it in a closed paper bag. This is true: fruit normally gives off ethylene gas, which hastens ripening. If an unripe fruit is placed in a brown paper bag, the ethylene gas it gives off does not dissipate into the air but is trapped and concentrated, causing the fruit to ripen faster. To get it to ripen even more quickly, add a ripe apple—it’s rich in ethylene and will make unripened fruits ripen more quickly.

Instant Watermelon Sorbet

The next time you buy a watermelon, skip the slices and get out the ice cream scoop. The scoop allows you to dish out the tasty fruit just like you would ice cream or sorbet. Kids will love it served this way, and it’s great for dessert!

Store Pineapples Upside Down

Did you know that the natural sugars in pineapple have a tendency to settle on the bottom of the fruit? Get them going in the other direction! Slice off the leaves and turn the fruit upside down on the counter for an hour before slicing. That way, the sugars will be evenly distributed throughout the entire pineapple.

Pitting Practice

This trick is definitely for adults only: To easily remove an avocado pit, thrust the blade of a sharp knife into the pit, twist slightly, and the pit will come right out.

How to “Peel” a Pomegranate

Fresh pomegranates are delicious and super-nutritious, but we always thought it was a pain to separate all of the tiny seeds—until we learned this tip: First halve the fruit, and place it in a bowl of cold water. You can easily scrape out the seeds from the pith while it’s in the water, and then drain them in a fine mesh strainer. Place the seeds in a covered container in the refrigerator for easy, healthy snacking.

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