Content

• Steps
• Tips
• Warnings
• What do you need

Plums are one of the best summer treats, but biting on a tough plum will leave you dissatisfied. Ripe plums are sweet and soft, so they are much more pleasant to eat. See Step 1 to learn how to store plums so that they reach their ultimate juiciness and sweetness in just a day or two.

Steps

1. 1 Place the plums in a clean plastic bag. Any paper bag will work, but it should be empty. When plums (and other fruits) are ripe, they produce ethylene. Placing them in a paper bag and wrapping them tightly will greatly speed up this process.
   • You can further speed up this process by adding a banana with plums. The extra ethylene produced by the banana will speed up the ripening of the plums.
   • Do not put plums in a plastic bag. Fresh air will not be able to penetrate into it, and the plums will have a strange taste.
   • You can also ripen plums by placing them in a bowl of fruit rather than in a paper bag. The plums will ripen, but not as quickly.
2. 2 Store the bag at room temperature. Plums ripen best at 20-25 degrees Celsius. Store them at this temperature until they are ripe.
   • Do not place the bag in the sun, as the plums can overheat. If the temperature is too high, the plums will start to rot.
   • Also, storing unripe plums in the refrigerator or at low temperatures will cause what is called cold damage. Such plums will not become juicy and sweet, but will be mealy and tasteless.
3. 3 Check the ripeness of the plums. The easiest way to do this is to lightly press down on the skin with your finger. If you have made a small indentation, the plum is most likely ripe. If the plum is still hard to the touch, wait a little longer. If your finger pierces the skin of a plum with a light touch, then you have waited too long. Here are some other ways to check ripeness:
   • Examine the texture of the peel. Plums look a little dusty when ripe.
   • Touch the plum near the stem. In ripe plums, this area is softer than the rest.
4. 4 Enjoy ripe plums. Once the plums are ripe, you can eat or cook them. To stop the ripening process and keep them a little longer, store them in the refrigerator in the vegetable compartment.

Tips

• If you're unsure of what to do with ripe plums, here are some options: Make a plum pie without eggs, bake a plum and cherry pie, turn them into prunes, or top with vodka.

Warnings

• Do not store unripe plums in the refrigerator. They will become mealy and soft, but will not ripen. Plums should only be stored in the refrigerator after they are ripe.

What do you need

• Paper bag
• Ripe banana
• Plum (s)