The Basics of Picking Fruits and Vegetables

Produce 101: The Basics of Picking Fruits and Vegetables

Have you ever wondered how to pick out your fruits and vegetables at a grocery store, but you had no idea what you were looking for? What color should a mango be? How firm should your oranges be? Can you eat all of the broccoli? Which part of asparagus is best? What kinds of apples are best for pie? What IS a pomegranate? What's the difference in red, yellow, and green bell peppers? All this information can be found in our video!

Chris Kolodzieg, produce manager of Wheatsville Food Co-Op in Austin, Texas (http://wheatsville.coop; a local grocery store that carries locally-grown organic, traditional, pesticide-free, and transitional produce) explains some basic fruits and vegetables and how to pick them out, as well as some key nutritional facts and suggested preparation ideas.

Featured in this video: Apples, Citrus (grapefruit and oranges), Strawberries, Pomegranates, Mangos, Mushrooms, Asparagus, Broccoli, Peppers, and Kale.

After viewing this video, you can now confidently pick out some of your favorite produce items in the grocery store without asking for help so that you can go home with the best, fresh fruits and vegetables.

The proceeds of this video will benefit the Capital Area Food Bank (www.austinfoodbank.org).

We are a group of four students (undergrad and graduate) at The University of Texas at Austin who are studying entrepreneurial management. We consulted Chris Kolodzieg, produce manager of Wheatsville Food Co-op in Austin, Texas, as our produce-picking expert.

All proceeds of this video will benefit the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas, Inc. (http://www.austinfoodbank.org/)

Needs more "picking" information.

05/07/2008

~ margosmith

The fruits and vegetables that were explained were kind of "no brainers". eg. "Don't pick mushy asparagus tips and don't pick peppers with rotten spots." I would like to know more about picking some difficult products--like how do you pick a good pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, etc. Also, there was too much of saying "some people like it, some people don't" and that kind of thing. The video needs to be more professional and informative.

Need to watch a bit to get to the good stuff

01/08/2008

~ keithf

This video contains quite a bit of good information, though not as much as I would have expected for an 11 minute video. The info given on the fruit portion is nothing special, most will already know the ins and outs of picking good fruit the way the instructor describes it. But the vegetable and mushroom portion is pretty informative, I especially enjoyed the broccoli, kale, and asparagus sections.

My biggest complaint is the video quality. It's pretty poor and makes it difficult to see the nuances in color when looking at the produce. Surprisingly though the audio is quite good, so at least I can hear all of the instructor's explanations.

coooool

11/29/2007

~ starrybliss

This is good for some basic knowledge, but it's a little chaotic/inconsistent, and I wish there was more of a recap or some text accompanying the lesson. Kinda cool though.

Good for the first time fruit or vegatable buyer.

11/18/2007

~ l159953

I would have liked to see the inside of some of the fruits when he was talking about them.

good info

11/17/2007

~ Katusha

Good info. Loved the music, Well done

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