Fruit (View Vegetables)

Avocado, Hass

Also known as

• California Avocado

This is available year-round and has a rich flavor and creamy texture. The skin turns almost black when the avocado is ripe. This is the best variety by far for guacamole, but it turns a bit mushy in salads.

Avocado, Reed

This large, roundish avocado slips easily from the peel, and has excellent flavour and texture. It has smooth skin and will stay firm even when ripe.

Olive

A staple of Mediterranean cuisines, olives are most often eaten out of hand, though cooks also use them to flavour everything from pizzas to martinis. Raw olives must be cured before they can be eaten, and the curing medium (usually lye, brine, or salt) affects their flavour and texture. So too does the olive's degree of ripeness when it's picked. Green olives are picked while unripe, which makes them denser and more bitter than brown or black olives, which stay on the tree until fully ripened.