{"id":2357,"date":"2026-09-08T09:33:33","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T14:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tartinadespunch.com\/?p=2357"},"modified":"2026-09-08T09:40:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T14:40:21","slug":"murissement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tartinadespunch.com\/en\/murissement\/","title":{"rendered":"Mealy Peaches, Brown Pears: How Can You Avoid Them?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Punch allows the fruit it sources for its organic spreads to ripen naturally. This allows the complex flavors of the fruit<\/strong> to develop and the natural sugar content to reach a higher level. This isn\u2019t possible in the massive, ethylene-saturated chambers used by industrial producers to control ripening down to the hour.<\/p>\n

So over the past four years, we\u2019ve watched hundreds of boxes of fruit ripen. And believe us, we\u2019ve seen some green ones and some unripe ones\u2014pun intended!<\/p>\n

Pears that are brown on the inside and hard on the outside<\/strong>? Yes, we\u2019ve seen plenty of those, too! It\u2019s counterintuitive, but it\u2019s probably a sign that the pear spent too much time basking in the sun on the tree. So it\u2019s a myth that nature always gives us fruit just the way we like it.<\/p>\n

To provide us with fruits that make our mouths water, growers have developed specialized techniques and varieties. We expect them to supply us, at affordable prices, with fruits that are ever sweeter, softer, juicier, and more flavorful<\/strong>. They must redouble their efforts to provide us with fruits that meet these very high expectations, while staying within our customers\u2019 budgets.<\/p>\n

How to produce juicy pears?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As for pears, they must be picked when firm, but not too firm<\/strong>. They need to spend some time in the cold, but not too cold<\/strong>. Bosc pears need more cold, while Bartlett pears need less. In short, the specifications are demanding.<\/p>\n

It is a difficult job<\/strong>, and one that is becoming increasingly so due to the vagaries of the weather. And this is even more true when public and individual health considerations limit the tools available to these growers, as is the case with organic farming. By adhering to these requirements\u2014and hoping that you\u2019ll let these pears ripen under the right conditions\u2014you\u2019ll have a masterpiece of craftsmanship to savor.<\/p>\n

Do you come across fruit that doesn't ripen properly<\/strong>? That's not so surprising, considering all the steps that need to be followed at every stage of production, distribution, and sale.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take the friendly growers, for example! Even the most careful ones can\u2019t go through the same row 10 times<\/strong> just to pick only the fruit at its optimal stage of development. This is made all the more difficult by the fact that birds and small mammals\u2014who are far less particular than we are\u2014have their eyes on that fruit. This is the threat facing the fields, because growers often face a choice between fruit picked too early and fruit damaged by a hungry animal<\/strong>. In the best-case scenario, a batch will consist mostly of perfectly ripe fruit, with some picked too early and some too late.<\/p>\n

Why is shopping at public markets better than shopping at the grocery store?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Peaches are another so-called \u201cclimacteric\u201d fruit<\/strong>, meaning they must convert their starch content into sugar to become delicious. And this peach is quite finicky<\/strong>! It will only do so if it\u2019s picked at just the right time\u2014not overripe, but not too hard either. It will halt this process if subjected to the cold of a refrigerator after harvest. It prefers temperatures of 8 to 10 degrees to stay fresh<\/strong> before beginning its transformation into one of the juiciest and sweetest fruits.<\/p>\n

This task is made all the more difficult by the fact that the fish will tend to suffer from brown rot<\/strong> (the fungus Monilinia). And to prevent bacterial growth and mold in the food we consume, food safety regulatory agencies will specify lower temperatures<\/strong> (0\u20134 degrees C) for storage.<\/p>\n

The more peaches have been exposed to strict sanitary conditions, the more likely they are to suffer cold damage<\/strong> and remain mushy even when ripe. We\u2019re biting into starch that hasn\u2019t turned into sugar. Does this experience remind you of a basket of peaches bought at the grocery store<\/strong>? This isn\u2019t surprising, considering that this method of transporting the fruit to your home is called \u201clong-distance distribution\u201d<\/strong>. This term conjures up images of a series of stops in refrigerated trucks, warehouses, and distribution centers, each one colder and more strictly sanitary than the last.<\/p>\n

In our part of the Nordic region, it\u2019s unlikely that you\u2019ll find fruit that hasn\u2019t been exposed to extreme cold. The easiest way to get fruit with the best potential for ripening is to buy it at a public market. In fact, you\u2019ve probably already experienced this yourself.<\/p>\n

Every climacteric fruit has its own story to tell. <\/strong>A colleague in the processing industry told us that if you can see a drop of sap on a mango, it means it has not been treated with hot water<\/strong>. According to him, this treatment limits the mangoes\u2019 ripening potential. So far, we haven\u2019t been able to confirm the difference between treated and untreated mangoes. There\u2019s always something new to learn, and that\u2019s a good thing!<\/p>\n

How We Source the Best Fruit at Tartinades Punch<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Punch Spreads tries as much as possible to prioritize short supply chains<\/strong> when sourcing fruit. We travel to Oka, Mirabel, \u00cele d\u2019Orl\u00e9ans, and sometimes even the Niagara Peninsula to buy our fruit. Allowing the fruit to ripen naturally requires a rigorous process of sorting<\/strong> and production, since we can\u2019t predict when a piece of fruit will be ripe. There have been times when we judged fruit to be too hard in the morning, only to find that the same fruit had become perfect by late afternoon. Those that are juicy and tender to perfection are used immediately to make our spreads. When there\u2019s too much for us to handle at the moment, we store them in the fridge until the right time comes.<\/p>\n

The larger the volumes processed, the longer this sorting process takes<\/strong>. And since we handle such tiny quantities compared to those of industrial producers, I figured they couldn\u2019t possibly do it this way. In fact, they discovered that as fruit ripens, it naturally releases ethylene<\/strong>. They use this property to induce ripening by placing pallets of fruit (typically 1.3 metric tons each) in a chamber saturated with ethylene. This promotes efficiency at the expense of flavor.<\/p>\n

Here is one of the many reasons these manufacturers are able to sell their jams at lower prices. However, this is becoming less and less true, as demonstrated in the article on the recent price increase for Bonne Maman jam\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Punch fait vieillir naturellement les fruits qu\u2019elle se procure pour fabriquer ses tartinades biologiques. Cela permet aux ar\u00f4mes complexes des fruits de se d\u00e9velopper et au taux de sucre naturel d\u2019atteindre un niveau plus \u00e9lev\u00e9. Ce n\u2019est pas possible dans d\u2019\u00e9normes sas satur\u00e9s en \u00e9thyl\u00e8ne utilis\u00e9s par les industriels pour contr\u00f4ler le m\u00fbrissement \u00e0 l\u2019heure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"iawp_total_views":14,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tartinadespunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Mauvaises-peches.avif","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tartinadespunch.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tartinadespunch.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tartinadespunch.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tartinadespunch.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tartinadespunch.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2357"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/tartinadespunch.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2363,"href":"https:\/\/tartinadespunch.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2357\/revisions\/2363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tartinadespunch.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tartinadespunch.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tartinadespunch.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tartinadespunch.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}