Banana

We deliver bananas with a hint of green at the tips on purpose. A banana that is perfectly yellow in the van is over-ripe by the time it reaches a bowl, and a fully yellow banana has about two days in it.

Green tips means you get the whole ripening curve at home: firm and faintly starchy for two days, properly sweet for three or four after that, then dark and soft, which is when they are best for a milkshake, a banana bread or a lassi.

Buy for when you want to eat them. If you need them today, ask for the ripest hand in the van; if you are buying for the week, greener is better.

Never the fridge while they are still green — cold stops the ripening permanently and blackens the skin without sweetening the fruit.

A bowl on the counter, away from apples and mangoes. Hanging them, if you have a hook, genuinely helps: bananas bruise where they rest on a surface.

Four to seven days from delivery depending on how green they arrive.