Fruit Category

These sugar-soaked and dyed cherries come in two colors: red (almond flavored) or green (mint flavored). Cooks usually use them to garnish desserts and drinks.

After Washington, D.C., mayor Marion Barry was arrested for possessing cocaine in 1989, marion berry jam enjoyed brief popularity as a novelty item.

These soft apples are great for snacking or for making applesauce, but don't bake them or put them in pies.

These large sweet medjool dates are very popular. If picked early they are called rutab dates. They originated in Tafilalt, Morocco but are enjoyed around the world.

With their small size and shiny black skins, these look like elongated plums. You can eat them, skin and all

This is a small, black-skinned avocado that's the size and shape of a fig. Since the peel is edible, they can be eaten like a peach. There's a smaller variety, the Mexicola cocktail avocado, that's oblong and virtually seedless. They'd make a great addition to a vegetable platter.

This is sweeter than an ordinary lemon, and highly prized by gourmet chefs.

Mincemeat is made with dried fruit, nuts, citrus peel, spices, and sometimes brandy, rum, or some other liquor. It used to be made with meat as well, and ready-made jars of it sometimes contain beef suet. It's often used for holiday pies.

This is sometimes served with lamb, veal, or game.

Mirasol peppers have a distinctive fruity flavor. These are moderately hot. When dried, these are called Guajillo chiles.

These are the common black ones that are ubiquitous in supermarkets, pizza parlors, and salad bars. They don't have as much character as European black olives.

You'll probably have to go to Florida to find this bizarre tropical fruit. It looks like a banana covered with green scales, which buckle and separate as the fruit ripens. Beneath the scales are kernels of pulp, which you scrape off like corn from a cob. The kernels have a pleasant tropical flavor and creamy texture. Wait until the scales separate before eating the kernels--unripe monsteras can irritate your mouth.

These dark purple elongated sweet seedless grapes are unusually shaped and well regarded.

This is a smoked and dried red jalapeno pepper. It's very hot.

Like the larger mora chili, this is a smoked and dried red jalapeno. It's very hot.

These are shriveled black olives that are somewhat bitter. They're best used for cooking rather than snacking.

The family of moyas includes atemoya, cherimoya, soursop, and sweetsop, all of which can be used interchangeably. All these fruits have scaly peels and hard black seeds, which you need to remove before eating.

This very popular chili looks like the ancho, but it's darker and sweeter. It's fairly mild and has an earthy flavor.

These are so fragile that almost no markets carry them.

Muscadine grapes are native to the American Southeast. The flesh is sweet but the skin is tart. It is easy to remove the skin.

Made from muscadine grapes, this is a redder, tarter version of grape jelly.

These are large and very sweet.

This is a very juicy, crisp, all-purpose apple.

These are green, brine-cured Greek olives. They're somewhat salty.

Nectarines resemble peaches, but they're sweeter and more nutritious. They're best if they're allowed to ripen on the tree. Unfortunately, tree-ripened nectarines bruise easily, so most growers scrimp on flavor and pick and market them while they're still slightly underripe. After buying nectarines, you're supposed to let them ripen for a couple of days at room temperature before eating them. This makes them softer and juicier, but not sweeter. Avoid buying nectarines that are too hard or that have green spots--a sign they were picked way too soon--or those that are bruised. The superior freestone varieties arrive in June and July; the cling varieties that come later aren't as good.

These large chilies are similar in size to Anaheims, but they're hotter. New Mexico green chilies peak in the late summer, while the hotter New Mexico red chilies appear in the fall. These are moderately hot.

These chilies have an earthy flavor and resemble the California chili, except they're hotter and more flavorful. They are moderately hot.

A key ingredient in Salade Niçoise, these small purplish-black olives have a distinctive sour flavor. They're great in tapenades.

These tart, firm apples are terrific in pies, but they're hard to find.

These black olives from France are salt-cured, which makes them wrinkly and more bitter than standard lye-cured American black olives.

This melon hails from Israel, and it's very highly regarded by melon fans.

This cross between a youngberry and a loganberry is black and fairly sweet.

A staple of Mediterranean cuisines, olives are most often eaten out of hand, though cooks also use them to flavor 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 flavor 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. Olives become bitter if they're cooked too long, so always add them to hot dishes at the last minute. Opened cans or jars of olives should be refrigerated, but some olives can be stored at room temperature if they're submerged in brine or olive oil.

These are used in sauces and soups. They're hot.

This is a mild squash, similar to zucchini.

Most American oranges are produced in Florida and California. Florida oranges are juicier, and better suited to squeezing, while California oranges segment more easily and are better for eating out of hand. The best oranges are smaller, thin-skinned, and heavy for their size.