Flappin’ Them Gums

Or is it fingers? I got so busy showboating in the last post that I forgot to answer the dang question! It was: do fruits start to degrade in nutritional value after they’re picked? From what I know the answer is no. Fruits are divided broadly into two types: climacteric and nonclimacteric. The first type rely on ethylene gas (that they themselves produce) to stimulate their ripening. These kinds of fruits (bananas and apples are good examples) continue to ripen and develop flavor off the tree. The second type do not depend on ethylene, and instead rely on the plant they grow on for their development. They get no sweeter or better tasting after picking (strawberries and pineapples, for example). Climacteric or no, both varieties will eventually decay and rot, at which point they will of course lose all their nutritional value, but until they actually get overripe, I don’t believe they lose nutrients in any significant amounts.