The best apples for baking are firm and crisp with a tart and sweet taste. These apples maintain a good texture during baking at high heat. Great varieties to use when baking are: Granny Smith, Envy, Ambrosia, Opal, Rockit, SugarBee, Honeycrisp, Golden Delicious, Cortland, Fuji, among others.

While flavor profile and texture of certain varieties are better for salads depending on the salad you are making, a key consideration is the speed at which an apple oxidizes after slicing. Oxidation is what causes an apple to turn brown over time after slicing. While any apple variety could be added to a salad, some great apple varieties that oxidize slower are: Cosmic Crisp, Opal, Gala, Honeycrisp, and Granny Smith. If you are not going to eat your salad right away or your apples (or pears) are going to be sliced in advance, you can squeeze a little bit of lemon juice on the slices to keep them from oxidizing.

Apples are freshest, and remain crisp and juicy longer when stored in a refrigerator at 33-34 degrees Fahrenheit.

Washing apples prior to eating is always a good idea. To wash your apple, simply run it under cool running water – no soap or other detergents are needed. Scrub vigorously with your clean hands, especially near the steam and star-shaped calyx on the bottom of the fruit.

Eating one large apple provides 20% of the recommended daily value of dietary fiber, 8% of the daily recommended antioxidant Vitamin C, and 7% of the daily recommended potassium. All that comes in a few juicy, crunchy bites from only 130 calories – with no fat, no sodium, and no cholesterol.

Apples naturally oxidize after they are sliced—some varieties more quickly than others. While apples that turn brown are perfectly safe to eat, they don’t look appetizing. An easy way to prevent or slow oxidation is by dipping sliced apples into a solution that is one part citrus juice and three parts water.

All pears are excellent for eating out of hand, but the many varieties offer different textures that make them more ideal for certain cooking applications. Sweeter pears, like Bartlett pears, are great for fresh eating, desserts, canning and salads. Firmer pears, such as Anjou are excellent in all types of cooking applications.

Pears come in a variety of textures and flavors when ripe. Bartlett pears are soft and juicy when ripe and are very sweet. Bartlett pears also change color as they ripen, from green to yellow. Bosc pears, are more crisp and are less sweet.

Pears are especially versatile and can add a boost of nutrition to any meal from sandwiches and salads to pizzas, side dishes, smoothies and more. They are also great as a snack by themselves.

The best way to determine if a pear is ripe is to ‘check the neck’. Just apply gentle pressure near the stem. If it yields to gentle pressure, it’s ripe and ready to eat.

The best way is to simply leave it at room temperature near other ripening fruit, like bananas. This will naturally speed up the ripening process. Once the pear is ripe, it can be refrigerated to slow the process and saved for use for up to five days later.