Buying Guide for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables:
Experience is the best teacher in choosing quality fresh produce, but here are a few pointers on buying some of the fruits and vegetables.

• ASPARAGUS - Stalks should be tender and firm. Tips should be close and compact. Choose the stalks with very little white--they are more tender. Use asparagus soon--it toughens rapidly.
• BEANS, SNAP - Those with small seeds inside the pods are best. Avoid beans with dry-looking pods.
• BERRIES - Select plump, solid berries with good color. Avoid stained containers, indicating wet or leaky berries. Berries such as blackberries and raspberries with clinging caps may be under ripe. Strawberries without caps may be too ripe.
• BROCCOLI, BRUSSELS SPROUTS AND CAULIFLOWER - Flower clusters on broccoli and cauliflower should be tight and close together. Brussels sprouts should be firm and compact. Smudgy, dirty spots may indicate insects.
• CABBAGE AND HEAD LETTUCE - Choose heads heavy for size. Avoid cabbage with worm holes and lettuce with discoloration or soft rot.
• CUCUMBERS - Choose long, slender cucumbers for best quality. May be dark or medium green, but yellowed ones are undesirable.
• MELONS - In cantaloupes, thick close netting on the rind indicates best quality. Cantaloupes are ripe when the stem scar is smooth and space between the netting is yellow or yellow-green. They are best to eat when fully ripe with fruity odor. -- Honeydews are ripe when rind has creamy to yellowish color and velvety texture. Immature honeydews are whitish-green. -- Ripe watermelons have some yellow color on one side. If melons are white or pale green on one side, they are not ripe.
• ORANGES, GRAPEFRUIT AND LEMONS - Choose those heavy for their size. Smoother, thinner skins usually indicate more juice. most skin markings do not affect quality. Oranges with a light greenish tinge may be just as ripe as fully colored ones. Light or greenish-yellow lemons are more tart then deep yellow ones. Avoid citrus fruits showing withered, sunken or soft areas.
• PEAS AND LIMA BEANS - Select pods that are well-filled but not bulging. Avoid dried, spotted, yellowed or flabby pods.
• ROOT VEGETABLES - Should be smooth and firm. Very large carrots may have woody cores, oversized radishes may be pithy, oversized turnips, beets and parsnips may be woody. Fresh carrot tops usually mean fresh carrots, but condition of leaves on most other root vegetables does not indicate degree of freshness.
• SWEET POTATOES - Porto Rico and Nancy Hall varieties-with bronze to rosy skins are soft and sweet when cooked. yellow to light-brown ones of the Jersey types are firmer and less moist.

• Cherries - 12
• Peaches - 12
• Raspberries - 12
• Strawberries - 12

• Asparagus - 8
• Beans - 8
• Cauliflower - 8
• Corn - 8
• Peas - 8
• Spinach - 8

Baked Goods
Bread & Yeast Rolls:

• White bread - 3
• Cinnamon rolls - 2
• Plain rolls - 3

• Apple - 8
• Boysenberry - 8
• Cherry - 8
• Peach - 8

Meat
Beef:

• Hamburger - 4
• Roasts - 12
• Steaks - 12

• Cutlets, chops - 9
  
• Roasts - 9

• Meat dinners - 3
• Meat pie - 3
• Swiss steak - 3

Poultry
Chicken:

• Cut-up - 9
• Livers - 3
• Whole - 12

• Chicken or Turkey dinners
  sliced meat and gravy - 6
• Chicken or Turkey pies - 6
• Fried Chicken - 4
• Fried Chicken dinners - 4

Fish & Shellfish
Fish Fillets:

• Cod, flounder, haddock,
  halibut, pollack - 6
• Mullet, ocean perch, sea
  trout, striped bass - 3
• Pacific Ocean perch - 2
• Salmon steaks - 2
• Sea trout, dressed - 3
• Striped bass, dressed - 3
• Whiting, drawn - 4

• Materials used for packaging foods for freezing should keep the air out and the moisture in so select containers that are moisture-vapor resistant or the Food will dry out.
• Waxed papers, household aluminum foil and cartons for cottage cheese and ice cream are not suitable, because they are not moisture-vapor resistant.
• Select a size that will hold enough vegetable or fruit for a mean for you family.
• Select containers that pack easily into a little space.
• Consider cost of containers and if they are reusable or not. If they are reusable, a high initial cost may be justified.
• Rigid containers are made of aluminum, glass, plastic, tin or heavily waxed cardboard. They can be used for vegetables, fruits, cooked foods or liquids.
• Non-Rigid containers as sheets and bags of cellophane, heavy aluminum foil, plastic film, polyethylene, or laminated paper are used for foods that are firm but irregularly shaped, like poultry, meat and baked goods.
• Bags are generally used inside cartons as moisture resistant liners.
• There is no economy in using poor quality packaging materials.
• Fill packages carefully, allowing for the necessary head space for the particular kind of food.
• Force or draw out as much air as possible, seal tightly, label, freeze immediately and store at 0° F. or lower.
• Foods should be frozen in amounts which will ordinarily be eaten in one meal. To treat light colored fruits to prevent darkening, use ascorbic acid. When freezing fruit in sugar syrup, add 1/2 tsp. ascorbic acid for each quart syrup. When freezing fruit in dry sugar, sprinkle ascorbic acid dissolved in water over fruit before adding sugar. use 1/4 tsp. ascorbic acid in 1/4 cup cold water to each quart of fruit.
• Freezing prepared foods may not save time. It may, however, allow time to be used to a better advantage.
  

• Prepare the dish as if it were to be served right away, but do not cook quite done. Reheating for serving will finish the cooking.
• Cheese or crumb toppings are best added when the food is reheated for serving.
• Pastry crumbs frozen unbaked are more tender and flaky and have a fresher flavor than those baked and then frozen.
• Cool the cooked food quickly. Pour out in shallow pans or place the uncovered pan of food in iced or very cold water; change water to keep it cold.
• As soon as the food is cool-60° F. or less, pack promptly into moisture-vapor-resistant containers or packaging materials. Pack tightly to force out as much air as possible.
• To have the food in desired amounts for serving and for quicker defrosting, separate servings with 2 pieces  of freezer paper.
• Since many main dishes are semi-liquid it is desirable to pack them in rigid containers. Foods frozen in containers with wide-mouthed openings do not have to be thawed completely to remove from container.
• Some main dishes may be frozen in the containers in which they were baked.
• Freezer weight foil (.0015 gauge) may be used to line the baking dish or pan. After the main dish is frozen (unwrapped) in this container, remove from the baking dish and package. The food may be reheated by slipping it and the foil into the baking dish.
• Allow head space for freezing liquid and semi-liquid foods. Seal, label, freeze quickly and store at 0° F. or lower.
• Most precooked, frozen, main dishes are reheated, either in the oven or on top of the range. Reheating in the oven takes a little attention and usually preserves the texture of the food better. Reheating on top of the range in a double boiler or a sauce pan is faster. When using a double boiler, start with warm, not hot, water in the lower pan so the food won't stick. Food reheated over direct heat needs to be stirred. This stirring may give a less desirable texture.
• If partial thawing is necessary, before the food can be removed from the package, place in luke warm water for a few minutes. complete thawing should be done in the refrigerator. If it takes more then 3 or 4 hours, thawing at room temperature may cause dangerous spoilage.
• If is best to freeze meat pies and turnovers unbaked.
• You can use any good meat loaf recipe for freezing. Just make enough for several meals instead of one and freeze the extra loaves.
• Nuts are likely to discolor and become bitter when frozen in a salad mixture.