- 2 days ago
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You see it at the market and it stops you in your tracks, a strange and beautiful thing, bright pink with green flames coming off its sides like something out of a storybook. Dragon fruit, they call it. So you pick the prettiest, brightest one, you carry it home, you cut it open, and it is watery, bland, a faint sweetness and not much else, like eating a wet sponge. And you decide the fruit is overrated and never buy another.
Here is what nobody told you. The fruit is not overrated. You picked a bad one. A dragon fruit picked right is sweet and bright and refreshing, but the bin is full of duds picked too green or sat too long, and they all look much the same to a person who does not know what to look for. We do not grow dragon fruit here in our cold Lancaster County, so I come to it a buyer the same as you, but the old way of reading a fruit by its look and its feel, that my grandmother taught me, works on any fruit under the sun, even one as strange as this.
Here is what I walk you through in this one:
✓ The deep even color that means ripe, and why a half-green one was picked too soon
You see it at the market and it stops you in your tracks, a strange and beautiful thing, bright pink with green flames coming off its sides like something out of a storybook. Dragon fruit, they call it. So you pick the prettiest, brightest one, you carry it home, you cut it open, and it is watery, bland, a faint sweetness and not much else, like eating a wet sponge. And you decide the fruit is overrated and never buy another.
Here is what nobody told you. The fruit is not overrated. You picked a bad one. A dragon fruit picked right is sweet and bright and refreshing, but the bin is full of duds picked too green or sat too long, and they all look much the same to a person who does not know what to look for. We do not grow dragon fruit here in our cold Lancaster County, so I come to it a buyer the same as you, but the old way of reading a fruit by its look and its feel, that my grandmother taught me, works on any fruit under the sun, even one as strange as this.
Here is what I walk you through in this one:
✓ The deep even color that means ripe, and why a half-green one was picked too soon
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00You see it at the market, and it stops you in your tracks, a strange and beautiful thing,
00:05bright pink, near magenta, with green flames coming off its sides like something out of a storybook.
00:13Dragonfruit, they call it, and rightly so.
00:16You have heard it is good for you.
00:18You have seen it cut open, all white and speckled with little black seeds,
00:22and you think, I will try one.
00:25So you pick the prettiest, brightest one, you carry it home,
00:29you cut it open, and you taste it, and it is, well, nothing.
00:35Watery, bland, a faint sweetness and not much else, like eating a wet sponge,
00:42and you think, the fruit is overrated, and you never buy another.
00:47Here is what nobody told you.
00:49The fruit is not overrated.
00:52You picked a bad one.
00:53A dragonfruit picked right and ripe is sweet and bright and refreshing,
00:59but the bin is full of duds, picked too green or sat too long,
01:04and they all look much the same to a person who does not know the five things to look for.
01:11And the folks who do know, they stand right beside you and pick out the good ones while you take
01:17home the watery ones,
01:18because they have learned to read this odd fruit, and you have not.
01:24Today I am going to teach you, so you never waste your money on a bland one again.
01:30I am Elias.
01:32My family has farmed this Lancaster County ground for generations.
01:37Now I will be straight with you, as I always am.
01:40We do not grow dragonfruit here, not in a hundred years, for it is a fruit of the hot, dry
01:47places,
01:48a fruit that grows on a great cactus far from any cold country like ours.
01:54So I come to it as a buyer at the market, the same as you.
01:59But the old way of reading a fruit with your eyes and your hands that my grandmother taught me,
02:05it works on any fruit under the sun, even one as strange as this, and I have learned to read
02:12this one.
02:13Five things.
02:15Five things most people miss every single time,
02:19and once you know them, you will never bring home a bland dragonfruit again.
02:25Let me tell you about my grandmother, because it is from her this all comes,
02:30and because she would have laughed at the notion that a strange new fruit needs strange new rules.
02:37When I was a boy, the market would now and then get in some fruit none of us had ever
02:43seen,
02:43something from far off, and the other women would not know what to make of it and would pass it
02:49by uncertain.
02:51Not my grandmother.
02:52She would pick the strange thing up and turn it in her hands and weigh it and press it gentle
02:59with her thumb
03:00and put it to her nose, and in a moment she would tell you whether it was good or no,
03:06a fruit she had never seen before in her life.
03:10I asked her once how she could know, and she said,
03:14Elias, a fruit is a fruit.
03:16They all tell you the same things if you know how to ask.
03:21Ripe is heavy and gives a little and smells sweet.
03:26Unripe is light and hard.
03:29Old is dry and withered and dull.
03:32It is the same tale in every fruit the Lord ever made,
03:37only the skin is different.
03:39And she was right.
03:41Everything I am about to tell you about this dragon fruit,
03:45this odd thing off a desert cactus,
03:48is the very same wisdom she used on an apple or a melon,
03:53only fitted to this fruit's particular skin.
03:57So do not be afraid of it for being strange.
04:00It tells you the same things every fruit tells if you know how to ask.
04:07The first thing is the color,
04:09and it is the one most folks think they already understand and get wrong anyway.
04:15You want a deep, bright, even color all over,
04:19a rich pink or red across the whole skin.
04:23Now here is where people err.
04:25They see a dragon fruit that is part green still,
04:30green over much of the skin or up near the leafy bits,
04:34and they buy it thinking it will ripen on the counter.
04:38It ripens very little once picked,
04:40and a half green one was picked too soon
04:44and will be sharp and watery and dull.
04:47So you want the one whose color has come up full and even,
04:52deep pink or red over the whole fruit,
04:55not blotched with green,
04:58not pale and washed out.
05:00But here is the other side,
05:02and the first bit of your fear of missing out.
05:05For the knowing shopper takes these.
05:08A deep, even color is the first sign of ripe,
05:11so the deeply colored ones are exactly the ones picked out first by the folks who know,
05:16leaving the green and pale duds in the bin for the rest.
05:20Reach for the rich, even color,
05:22and reach early.
05:25And while we are on color,
05:27let me tell you of the two main kinds you will meet,
05:29for it saves confusion at the bin.
05:31The common one has bright pink or red skin
05:35and white flesh inside,
05:37speckled with the black seeds,
05:39and it is the milder and more watery of the two,
05:42the one most folks first try.
05:44The other has the same pink or red skin,
05:48but a deep red or purple flesh inside,
05:51and that red-fleshed kind is generally the sweeter and richer of the two,
05:56with more flavor to it,
05:57though it is dearer and harder to find,
06:00and it will stain your fingers and everything else a deep red,
06:03so mind your good shirt.
06:06You cannot always tell from the outside which you have,
06:09though the red-fleshed ones often have a slightly deeper,
06:12more purplish cast to the skin.
06:14If you find the red-fleshed kind,
06:17and it passes the five tests,
06:20that is the prize,
06:21the sweetest of the lot.
06:23But the five things apply just the same to both,
06:26so do not fret over it.
06:28Choose a ripe one of either,
06:30and you will eat well.
06:32Quick word before I go further.
06:34The old methods my family uses,
06:37there is more of it than fits in any one video.
06:40I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
06:44The book is the long version.
06:46If you want it, it is there.
06:48I will not mention it again.
06:50The second thing is the give,
06:52and this is the one almost nobody does,
06:55and it is the one that tells you most.
06:57You take the fruit in your hand,
06:59and you give it a gentle squeeze,
07:01the whole fruit,
07:02and you feel for how it yields.
07:05You want a slight give,
07:06the way a ripe avocado or a ripe peach gives,
07:10yielding just a touch under your hand,
07:12and then pushing back.
07:14That slight give is the sign
07:16of a ripe, ready dragon fruit.
07:18If it is hard as a rock,
07:20firm all the way through with no give at all,
07:23it is underripe, picked too green,
07:26and it will be bland and watery,
07:28and it will not much ripen for you at home.
07:30And if it gives too much,
07:32if it feels soft and mushy,
07:34and your fingers sink in,
07:35it has gone the other way,
07:38overripe,
07:38the inside turning to mush and going off.
07:41So you want that middle place,
07:43a gentle living give,
07:45firm but not stony,
07:47yielding but not soft.
07:49Here is how to feel for it rightly,
07:51so you do not bruise the fruit
07:53nor fool yourself.
07:54You cup the whole fruit in your hand,
07:57not poking at one spot with a hard thumb
07:59which only bruises it,
08:00but pressing gently and evenly
08:02all around with your whole hand,
08:05and you feel whether it yields a little all over.
08:08Think of pressing the firm part of your own palm
08:11just below the thumb,
08:12that little give and push back,
08:14that is what a ripe one feels like.
08:17A green chair leg of a fruit
08:19that will not move at all under your hand,
08:21that is unripe.
08:22A bag of pudding that your fingers sink right into,
08:25that is overripe and going off.
08:28The ripe one lives in between,
08:30and once you have felt a few,
08:32you will know it instantly.
08:33Most folks never touch the fruit at all,
08:36they just grab the brightest one and go,
08:38and that is exactly why they get a hard green dud.
08:42One gentle squeeze tells you more than all the looking.
08:45Let me tell you a little about what this fruit even is,
08:48for it helps you understand it.
08:50It grows on a great climbing cactus
08:53in the hot dry lands,
08:54a sprawling thing that clambers over rocks and trees,
08:58and the fruit comes from a flower
08:59that blooms but a single night,
09:01a great white flower that opens in the dark
09:04and is gone by morning,
09:06which is why some call it the moonflower fruit.
09:09The fruit itself is mostly water and soft flesh inside,
09:13white or sometimes a deep red,
09:15all speckled through with tiny black seeds
09:18that you eat right along with it,
09:20like the seeds in a fig.
09:21The taste, when it is good,
09:23is a mild sweet thing,
09:25gentle and refreshing,
09:27something between a melon and a pear,
09:29cool and light.
09:31It is never a bold, strong-flavored fruit,
09:34even at its best,
09:35which is part of why a poor one
09:37tastes of nothing at all,
09:38for it has not much flavor to spare.
09:41That is the very reason
09:43choosing right matters so much with this one.
09:46A good apple and a poor apple
09:48are both still apples,
09:50but a poor dragon fruit,
09:52having so little flavor to begin with,
09:55crosses clean over into tasting of plain water.
09:58Get a good one,
10:00and it is a lovely, cool, sweet thing.
10:02Get a poor one,
10:03and you have bought a sponge.
10:06The margin between them
10:07is wider than in almost any fruit,
10:10and that is why the five things matter here
10:13more than most.
10:15The third thing is one
10:16that is special to this fruit,
10:18and it is a fine secret,
10:20because it is the part everyone ignores.
10:23Those green leafy bits
10:25coming off the sides,
10:26the fins, or the wings as some call them,
10:29the things that make it look like a dragon,
10:31those tell you the age of the fruit,
10:34plain as anything.
10:36On a fresh,
10:37lately-picked dragon fruit,
10:39those fins are full and fresh
10:41and a bit firm,
10:43green or with a reddish blush,
10:45standing out lively from the fruit.
10:48As the fruit sits and ages,
10:50day after day in the store,
10:52those fins are the first thing to go.
10:55They dry out,
10:56they wither,
10:57they turn brown and shrivel
10:59and curl up dry against the fruit.
11:02So look at the fins.
11:04Fresh, full, lively fins
11:06mean a recently picked fruit.
11:09Dry, brown, withered,
11:11shriveled fins
11:12mean a fruit that has sat a long while,
11:15drying out from the outside in,
11:17however bright its body still looks.
11:20The body of the fruit
11:22can hold its color a good while
11:23after it has gone old and tired,
11:26but those leafy fins cannot lie.
11:29Read the fins,
11:30and you read the true age.
11:33The fourth thing is the blemishes,
11:35and you must turn the fruit
11:37all the way around in your hands
11:39to do it right,
11:40because the bad spot
11:41is always hidden against the bin
11:43where you cannot see it.
11:45You are looking for brown spots,
11:48soft, sunken places,
11:50mushy patches,
11:51and dark blotches on the skin.
11:53A little surface scuff
11:55or a small mark
11:56is no great matter.
11:57The skin gets knocked about in shipping.
11:59But a soft, sunken, brown, mushy spot
12:03means the fruit is rotting beneath that spot,
12:06and that rot spreads inward and through.
12:09So turn it over,
12:11look at the underside,
12:13look all around it,
12:14and pass over any
12:15with soft, dark, rotten patches.
12:18A few small dry marks, fine.
12:21Soft, mushy brown spots
12:23leave it in the bin.
12:25And pay particular mind
12:27to the very ends of the fruit,
12:28the top where the fins gather
12:31and the bottom,
12:32for those are the spots
12:33where the rot most often takes hold first
12:36and where folks least often think to look.
12:39So check both ends close
12:41before you trust it.
12:42This is the same as turning over
12:44the box of strawberries
12:45to check the bottom.
12:47The trouble hides
12:48where you are not meant to look,
12:49so you must look there on purpose.
12:52The fifth thing is the weight,
12:54and it is the quiet tell
12:56that sorts the juicy
12:57from the dried out.
12:58Heft it in your hand.
13:00A good ripe dragon fruit,
13:02full of moisture and flesh inside,
13:05is heavy for its size,
13:07heavier than you would expect
13:08from looking at it.
13:09A fruit that feels light for its size
13:12has begun to dry out within,
13:14losing its moisture,
13:16and the flesh inside will be less,
13:18drier, less sweet and juicy.
13:21So pick up two of a like size
13:24and feel which is the heavier,
13:26and take the heavy one,
13:27for the heavy one is full
13:29and the light one is drying.
13:32Your hands will tell you
13:33the difference at once
13:34if you only stop to feel it.
13:37And let me draw these last ones together
13:39with a word on the hurry of it,
13:41for there is a reason
13:43I keep telling you to reach early.
13:44A dragon fruit is a dear
13:47and somewhat rare fruit,
13:49so a store rarely puts out
13:51a great many at once,
13:52and of those few,
13:54only a handful will be truly ripe and right.
13:57The deeply colored,
13:59gently giving,
14:00fresh-finned,
14:02heavy, unblemished ones,
14:04the ones that pass all five tests,
14:06may be but two or three
14:08in the whole bin on any given day.
14:10And the folks who have learned
14:12to read this fruit
14:13go straight for those few
14:14and carry them off.
14:16So if you come late,
14:17or dawdle reading the labels,
14:19or trust to grabbing the brightest
14:21from across the aisle,
14:23you are very apt to find
14:25the good ones already gone,
14:27and only the green duds
14:29and the tired old ones
14:30left for you
14:32at the same dear price.
14:34This is not a fruit
14:36where you can be lazy
14:37and still eat well,
14:38because there are so few
14:40good ones to begin with.
14:42Get your hands on them,
14:43check all five,
14:45and do it before
14:46the knowing shopper beside you
14:48clears the bin
14:49of its small handful
14:51of good ones.
14:53Now before I sum it up,
14:55let me give you a few words
14:56on what to do with it
14:58once you have chosen well,
15:00for a good fruit
15:01can still be spoiled
15:03by poor handling.
15:05If you have done your best
15:06at the bin,
15:07but the only decent ones
15:09are a touch firm,
15:11a touch under-ripe,
15:13do not despair.
15:14For unlike many fruits,
15:16this one will soften
15:17and improve a little
15:19if you leave it out
15:20on the counter
15:21at room warmth
15:22for a few days,
15:23not in the cold.
15:25It will not gain
15:27much sweetness, mind.
15:28The sweetness was set
15:30when it was picked,
15:31but it will soften
15:33to a better eating texture.
15:35Once it is ripe
15:37and gives properly,
15:38then you put it
15:39in the cold
15:40to hold it,
15:41and it keeps
15:42a good few days there.
15:44To eat it,
15:46you simply cut it in half
15:47down the middle
15:48and either scoop
15:49the soft flesh
15:50straight out with a spoon
15:52like a boiled egg,
15:53or peel the skin back,
15:55which comes away easy
15:57from a ripe one,
15:58and slice the flesh.
16:00The skin you do not eat.
16:02The little black seeds
16:04you do all through it.
16:06They are soft and pleasant
16:08and no trouble.
16:10Cold from the icebox
16:12on a hot day,
16:13it is a fine,
16:14refreshing thing.
16:15And that, after all,
16:17is the whole point
16:19of having chosen
16:20a good one.
16:22A well-chosen dragon fruit,
16:24cut cold
16:25and scooped with a spoon,
16:27is worth every bit
16:29of the care
16:30it took to pick it.
16:31So there are your five.
16:34A deep, even bright color
16:36all over,
16:37no green,
16:38the mark of ripe,
16:40and reach for it early
16:42before the knowing folks
16:44clear them out.
16:45A gentle, living give
16:47to a soft squeeze,
16:49not stony hard,
16:51and not mushy soft.
16:54Fresh, full, lively fins,
16:57not dry, brown, withered ones,
17:00for the fins
17:01tell the true age.
17:03No soft, sunken, brown,
17:05rotten spots
17:06found by turning it
17:08all the way around.
17:10And heavy for its size,
17:12for the heavy one is juicy
17:14and the light one
17:16is dried out.
17:18Five things,
17:19not one taking more
17:21than a moment,
17:22and together,
17:23they are the whole difference
17:25between a bright, sweet,
17:27refreshing dragon fruit
17:28and a watery, bland,
17:31dollar-wasting disappointment.
17:34Now let me tell you
17:36who profits
17:37from your not knowing
17:38these five.
17:40Not to rile you up,
17:42just so you see
17:43the shape of it.
17:44A dragon fruit
17:46is a deer fruit.
17:47It costs a good deal more
17:49than an apple
17:50or an orange
17:51being shipped so far
17:53from such hot places.
17:54And the store
17:56sells the bland green dud
17:59at the very same
18:00dear price
18:01as the perfect ripe one,
18:03for they ring up
18:05the same.
18:06They are content
18:07for you to buy
18:08by the eye,
18:09to grab the brightest,
18:11prettiest one,
18:12and pay the high price,
18:14and take your chances.
18:15And if it is watery
18:17and bland,
18:18well,
18:19that is no loss to them,
18:20they have your money
18:22either way,
18:23and you blame the fruit
18:25and not your choosing.
18:27The pretty dud
18:28and the perfect one
18:30cost them the same
18:31to stock
18:32and cost you the same
18:34at the till.
18:35The only one who loses
18:38by your not knowing
18:39is you,
18:41every time you pay
18:42that deer price
18:44for a watery sponge.
18:46I am not telling you
18:48a man schemed this.
18:50No one had to.
18:52It is worse
18:53than a conspiracy
18:54because it is a system
18:56nobody had to coordinate.
18:58It simply costs
19:00the store nothing
19:01for you to keep buying
19:03bland dragon fruit
19:04at a dear price
19:06and costs you
19:07a good deal
19:08every time you do.
19:10So here is what
19:12I will leave you with,
19:13and I mean it plain.
19:15The next time you stand
19:17before that bin
19:18of dragon fruit,
19:19you have a choice.
19:20You can do
19:22what you have always done,
19:23grab the brightest one
19:25your eye lands on,
19:27pay the deer price,
19:29and likely take home
19:31another watery disappointment.
19:33Or you can do
19:34the five things
19:35in about ten seconds
19:36with your eyes
19:37and your hands both,
19:39and walk away
19:40with the ripest,
19:41sweetest,
19:42juiciest dragon fruit
19:44in the whole bin
19:45while everyone else
19:46pays the same price
19:47for the duds.
19:48The good ones
19:50are sitting in that bin
19:51right now,
19:52and there are never
19:53many of them,
19:54and the folks who know
19:55are reaching for them first.
19:57This is a dear fruit
19:59to get wrong.
20:01Be the one
20:02who knows
20:02what to reach for,
20:04not the one
20:05who pays top dollar
20:06to be let down again.
20:08Now I want to hear from you,
20:10and I ask honest
20:12because I learned
20:12the whole country
20:13from these comments.
20:15Tell me in the comments below,
20:17have you ever tried
20:18a dragon fruit
20:19and found it bland
20:20and watery
20:21and wondered
20:22what the fuss was about?
20:23For I would wager
20:25you simply got a bad one.
20:27And tell me your county
20:28and where you find
20:30dragon fruit near you,
20:31because it is rare
20:33in some parts
20:33and common in others,
20:35and I like to map it
20:36by where you all
20:37write from.
20:38I read every one.
20:40Next time,
20:41we go on to another fruit
20:43of the hot far places
20:44that the store fools you on
20:46worse than near any other,
20:48the mango.
20:49Five things to look for,
20:51because a mango
20:52hides its ripeness
20:54in ways that surprise
20:55even folks
20:56who have eaten them
20:57all their lives.
20:58If you have ever
20:59cut into a mango
21:00hoping for sweetness
21:02and found it stringy
21:03and sour,
21:04that one is for you.
21:06A dragon fruit
21:07is a strange
21:08and wonderful thing,
21:10a fruit off
21:11a great desert cactus
21:12carried halfway
21:13across the world
21:14to your table,
21:15and it deserves
21:16to be chosen with care,
21:18not grabbed by the eye
21:19and gambled on.
21:21My grandmother
21:22could read any fruit
21:23ever set before her,
21:25common or strange,
21:27by its look
21:27and its weight
21:28and its give,
21:30and that knowing
21:31works as well
21:32on a dragon fruit
21:33as on an apple,
21:34for the language
21:35of ripe and unripe
21:36is the same
21:37in every fruit
21:38God made.
21:40The kitchen
21:41that never wastes
21:42its money
21:42on a bland fruit
21:43is the kitchen
21:44that knows how to choose.
21:46The people
21:47who built this country
21:48with their hands
21:49knew that,
21:49and we are only
21:51just starting
21:51to remember it.
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