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Stone Fruit Delivery or Pickup
The Instacart guide to stone fruit
If you've ever bitten into a sweet juicy peach, apricot, or cherry, you're eating one of many varieties of stone fruit. As the name of the fruit implies, stone fruits have one pit or seed in the center and are often called drupes, which is a thin-skinned, fleshy fruit with a seed in the middle. Some stone fruits are clingstone or freestone, have a smooth or fuzzy outer skin, some are sweet like peaches and nectarines, and others a bit more on the sour side like sour cherries.
About stone fruit
Stone fruits are in the rose or Rosacea family and the Genus Prunus. While some fruits may have a center seed, fleshy interior, and thin skin like an olive, they are technically not stone fruit as they're not in the Prunus genus. Stone fruits originated in the northern hemisphere of the world. To date, there are over 430 different specifies of prunus, including obscure fruits such as a Chickasaw plum, Cherry laurel, or the sand cherry.
The most common types of stone fruit include:
- Peaches.
- Nectarines.
- Plums.
- Apricots.
- Cherries.
- Mangoes.
- Green almonds.
- Dates.
Some fruits that we think of as berries are actually colonies of drupes with several or hundreds of tiny seeds inside them.
Unusual stone fruits include:
- Strawberries.
- Raspberries.
- Blackberries.
- Olallieberries.
- Loganberries.
- Mulberries.
- Blueberries.
- Tomatoes.
- Oranges.
- Apples.
- Pears.
- Lemons.
- Grapefruit.
- Grapes.
How to pick out stone fruit
Most stone fruits have delicate, thin skins and require gentle handling to avoid bruising. Here are some ideas on how to tell if your stone fruit is ready to bring home and eat or cook with:
- Aroma: While you don't want to pick up every piece of fruit and sniff it, you should be able to detect a sweet and fragrant aroma. If the fruit has a fermented, malty, or bland smell, it's either overripe or underripe.
- Color: Look for fruits that have a vibrant color to them. If there's green around the stem, they were picked too early and won't be ripe and sweet.
- Firmness: When you squeeze the fruit ever-so-gently, the fruit should yield a bit to the light pressure. If it's stiff and hard, it's not ripe enough, and if it feels squishy or has bruises, it's overripe.
- Mold: When shopping for stone fruit such as berries, carefully look the batch or container over for mold. Most berries are very delicate and bruise easily. Once bruised, they can mold quite quickly. One moldy berry in a carton can ruin the whole batch.
How to preserve and cook with stone fruit
While eating stone fruit just as they are is delicious, it's easy to preserve them as well. You can make single fruit jams such as peach, grape, or strawberry, or branch out and mix the fruits up. Make a sunny-looking jam using peaches, apricots, and nectarines for a bright look. Mix blackberries, olallieberries, and blueberries for a blue-colored jam, and make sweet and tart marmalades using orange, grapefruit, and lemons.
Most stone fruits lend themselves well to baking in pies, scones, and dessert bread such as lemon blueberry bread, peach or apple pie, or bread pudding with sweet pears. Some stone fruits such as peaches, nectarines, and apricots taste wonderful when lightly grilled. The heat from the fire helps to caramelize the fruit and bring out its natural sweetness.
FAQs about stone fruit
All stone fruits, especially when eaten fresh, are high in fiber, low in calories, and contain vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin K, potassium, and other phytonutrients. All of these vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients help keep your immune system strong, contribute to your eye health, and help to enhance overall health.
Clingstone fruits have fruit attached to the seed and can't be pulled apart, while freestone fruit is easily detached from the center seed. You'll encounter this mostly in peaches, nectarines, and apricots. Clingstone fruits tend to have a sweeter flavor and are best for eating as is. Freestone fruits are usually larger and juicier and are ideal for grilling or preserving.
Depending on the type of stone fruit you buy, such as fresh peaches versus dried dates or almonds, your stone fruit can last anywhere from one day to several weeks. In general, once the fruit is ripe, you can store fruits such as plums, cherries, and peaches in the refrigerator for 3-5 days. You can also freeze stone fruit for later use in smoothies, pies, or exotic fruit salsas.
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