Buying ripen-at-home avocados can save you a few rands if you regularly buy the green fruit at the supermarket. But the millennial favourites are notorious for going from hard and unripe to mushy and overripe in the space of a day - and it can take a long time before they are ready to use.
However there is a way to make sure your avocados ripen in just a couple of days that will make sure you have perfectly soft avocado flesh to use for your breakfast, lunch or dinner. And all you will need is a brown paper bag and an apple or a banana.
Experts at Avocado Central, a website by the Hass Avocado Board that is dedicated to the green fruit, say that storing your avocados in the correct way means that you can enjoy them much more quickly.
FAVOURITE: Ripe avocado
All you need to do is keep your fruit in a brown paper bag with an apple or a banana, and your avocados should be ripe enough to eat within two or three days. Apples and bananas release a lot of the plant hormone, ethylene, which can ripen other fruits very easily. When the gases become trapped in a paper bag, the fruit will ripen much quicker than if it was left out on a counter.
The website writes: 'The plant hormone ethylene, which occurs naturally in fruits like apples and bananas, triggers the ripening process.
'When combined in a brown paper bag, which helps to trap the ethylene gases produced by these fruits, these gases can cause the fruits to ripen faster together.' It also explains why you should never store your apples and bananas with other fruit if you don't want them to ripen too quickly.
Apples and bananas are best stored in a fruit bowl away from other fruit such as nectarines and peaches which can quickly become overripe if stored next to them. Bananas should also never be stored in the fridge as the peel will turn black.
Daily Mail