“Ripe” is a largely human-oriented word, in the sense that it’s mostly disconnected from the life-time of a plant. We consider fruits or vegetables to be “ripe” when we want to eat them, not necessarily when they reach a certain point. There are certainly some trends – tree-borne fruit tend to be considered ripe at just the point they fall off the tree (or slightly before), bush-borne berries tend to be considered ripe as they reach their richest colouration etc. And there are areas of disagreement – for example, most people agree that bananas are “ripe” when they are all yellow and mostly firm, with some people preferring to eat them when they’re “under-ripe” (ie a bit green and harder) or “over-ripe” (brown and mushy), but this is really just linguistic short hand because we all understand what a ‘ripe’ banana is, even if we prefer something else.
Leaves that we eat – spinach, chard, rocket etc – tends to go bitter just as the seeds start to develop. Of course, the seeds don’t develop in the leaves, but rather the plant “bolts” – suddenly (in the context of plants, at least) it gets a lot taller and small flowers develop; Typically by this point, it’s too late for the leaves, as they go bitter (this may well happen with other plants, too, but we don’t eat tomato plant leaves, for instance). With other plants, the process of ripening might decrease the relative sugar content (usually by increasing the water content), so depending on if you want a smaller, sweeter food or larger, more watery one, you may prefer to harvest earlier or later. You get others, too, like potatoes, where the main things that change as they grow aren’t the flavour so much as the texture (and of course size), so ‘new’ potatoes are ones harvested earlier and tend to be a bit creamier and waxier, where as potatoes harvested later are larger and better for baking or mashing. They can be harvested months apart, yet both considered ripe.
So really, “ripeness” is subjective, different plants act in different ways and even in the ways they are similar, when you want to eat it (and therefore when it is, for you, “ripe”) varies with both taste and what part of the plant it is you’re eating. If you consistently find that you prefer something ‘under ripe’, this is really a subjective distinction. It’s ripe to you when you want to eat it.
Latest Answers